StarFox 6: REFLECTIONS of a New Generation
by Kit-Karamak
Summary: STORY COMPLETE: The legacy of Marcus McCloud. I'm now working on a sequel by popular demand: Reflections of Marcus McCloud. Epilogue for this story is now posted. Please read and continue to review this story to help me build the sequel. Let me tell you how SURPRISED I was when I found out this was the favorite storyline of most readers in this series!
1. Prologue and Chapter 1

A quick author's note before we get started.

This story is NOT intended for people who dislike "Children Of StarFox" Stories.

If you dispise that kind of story arc, I am sorry but this story is not for you.

I won't eat the headers with MASSIVE author's notes anymore, after this chapter.

Thanks:)

Okay! Yet another story in the Reflections Universe… This one was suggested by a small group of people. I asked about it, in the last chapter of Reflections of the Future and it looks as though I'll have enough readers to write this story. Then, I got behind on some things and I even had people go cross-genre, leaving feedback to ask for this story to happen, over in my Sly Cooper story reviews, lol.

**A lot of people do NOT care for "children of StarFox" stories.**

I may, if Star becomes popular, have a sequel for him in store... you know, develop him a bit. I may bring the main characters back at the end, depends on how things pan out... nobody is _dead_. They're missing and _preseumed_ dead.

There's going to be action, drama, romance and I think I'm going to make this story either TEEN or MATURE rating, unlike the other Reflections Stories. See, I'm **pulling a NINTENDO, here**. _As you all know_, Fox and Krystal both lost their parents to murder (which is assumable that it was Andross in both cases). But, see, this is the plot of _my_ story as well and will portray some dark times in the McCloud future…

**Again, if you dislike one of those "StarFox The Next Generation" plots with "StarFox Junior" characters, I won't fault you for closing out of this story **_before_ reading it. **But** if you want to have an open mind… thanks!

Sorry I changed the title 50 times… Reflections of the Distant Future, Distant Reflections, Reflections of The Next Generation, StarFox: Reflections Of Tomorrow. Lord, I went through a lot of names… Anyway, HERE.

-Kitsune

* * *

**Reflections of A New Generation**

A tale of suspense and drama

**By**

**Kit Karamak**

Aka

Ken Weaver

**Disclaimer** For entertainment purposes only. Used without permission of Nintendo. StarFox is copyright 1993, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005 (and maybe 2006/2007 depending if the Nintendo DS rumors are true!). All expressed characters, places and objects are permission of Nintendo. StarFox and Starwing are trademarked and licensed to Nintendo with publishing license rights leant to Rare and Namco, Benimaru Itoh and Nintendo Power Magazine. All rights reserved. Do not sell or redistribute this story for financial gain. If you do, people will think you're not nice. I like money, porn and video games. Imaginary Lawyers will knock on your door to the beat of the "Badgers" song if you put your name on this story, else I don't care if you repost this story, you don't even have to ask if you want to do it… just… do it :) Disclaimers are lame and boring. I do, however, accept donations for no reason other than the reasons of "because". Have a nice day and smile more often. It takes less muscular use than frowning; think of the economy of muscular usage. Did you really read this whole thing? StarFox is lawfully under ownership of Nintendo. The Intellectual Properties belong to Nintendo, who has been in business for over one hundred years, as a card game that predates card games like Old Maid and Uno. StarFox also has licensing through F-zero, James McCloud pilot. StarFox IS StarWing, which is the European-release title name. Neat. I like Cookies. Nintendo Owns Both titled licensed franchised trademarked copyright Intellectual Properties of Nintendo Of America and Nintendo of Japan.

* * *

**Reflections**...

_Time flows like a river and history often repeats itself... _

_But the slight changes make us who we are and our choices help define us..._

_...Lest we end up like our parents..._

* * *

(_six years ago_)

Prologue:

**The soft scarlet glow reflected into the eyes of** Star McCloud. Sixteen years old; Star McCloud, who disliked his name, lived up to it just the way his mother and the Cerinia Oracle had apparently predicted. Contrasting against soft brown fur, he had a blue birthmark in the shape of a star around his right eye and matching strands of azure headfur. His cerulean bangs came down to his nose; some strands stood out with decorative white beads for added weight.

His mother, Krystal McCloud, put her paws firmly on his broad shoulders, looking at the teenager sullenly. "I don't exactly care, young man. I know what you are thinking and the answer is _NO_. You'll get into the escape pod and we'll cover your descent with the Arwings." The metallic deck plates shook gently beneath their feet.

"Extraction is on Katina, right mom?" Star frowned thoughtfully, lowering his soft gaze to the floor. A mismatch of iris colors, he had one green eye and one blue eye, which were now being used to burn a metaphorical 'hole' in the deck of GreatFox II. The hull-breech warning played consistently over the PA speakers to which Krystal shook her head with a sigh. She could sense his true thoughts behind the question.

"I know… I loved this ship, too; we'll have to use the Carrier full time, now. Yes, sweetheart: We'll all meet up on Katina. Now get going."

"What about all our belongings?" He placed a paw on his pocket, feeling the rectangular box he'd borrowed from his father, safe and secure. However, his mind turned to everything else – irreplaceable Cerinian artifacts, personal possessions and family heirlooms.

Krystal shook her head. "Doctor Andross isn't waiting for us, so you need to hurry; _now_, Star."

"I hate that name," he suddenly snapped, being ushered back towards the escape pods along the wall. Krystal looked hurt. He held contempt for the name the Oracle suggested and his disrespect for the Cerinian custom brought about a visible flinch. She frowned at the boy and shook her head once more. She always knew his lack of fondness for it, but he never reacted with such blatant insensitivity before. He tried to keep an obdurate glare but the expression melted into a simple face-fault.

"I love you, Star. Hurry, your father just launched, he'll cover you. I have to join him and we'll see you down on the ground. Peppy will be going with you," she added, sensing that 'Old-man' Hare was approaching. The rabbit nodded politely to Mrs. McCloud then opened the hatch to the escape pod, motioning for Star to get inside.

The ship trembled again, starting with a stiff shaking and ending with a low rumbling noise that bellowed through the corridors. Metal against metal screeched in protest somewhere else on the ship and a creaking noise followed from the deck below them. It was nearly breaking up at the bolts from the way things sounded. Star clinched his paws tightly, glancing at Peppy Hare then the pod. The elderly lapin was a dinosaur, more or less.

The teenaged kit shook his head, narrowing his eyes for a moment then frowned. He _couldn't believe_ that he _wasn't_ _allowed_ to fly against Andross. Finally, he moved back to the wall and slipped through the porthole, sliding down into one of the escape pod seats. They were cold, and he could see his breath emanating from his snout. Peppy slipped in behind, drawing the hatch shut.

Star's mother glanced through the small glass hole in the door and telepathically reminded him of her love for him…. '_Just in case_,' she added in thoughts. The simple notion of the possibility of never seeing them again riled him up. The teenager began to reach for the hatch again but Peppy pulled him back to the seat. Krystal moved away from the Plexiglas and disappeared. In mere seconds, the GreatFox II Cruiser began to shrink through the small bubble glass.

A few moments later, Krystal's fighter burst from the hanger bay just in time… GreatFox II, the team's dreadnaught cruiser, flashed, reflecting hues of scarlet against his eyes. The garnet explosion would replay in young McCloud's eyes for years and years to come. Peppy placed a paw on his shoulder and the teenager shrugged it off with a callous sigh. He was never this rebellious but he also wanted nothing more than to fly against the man who was responsible for the murder of his grandparents on both sides of his family.

Star drew his paw back, striking the bitter cold bulkhead. Peppy shook his head slowly, drew in a long slow breath then released it in the form of a sad sigh. "That's the second time we've lost that ship in combat." The GreatFox Carrier, a polished red and silver mini attack-carrier, came into view. Peppy growled softly then added, "According to sensors, ROB64's escape pod never left the GF Cruiser. Who is going to pilot the entire Carrier? He's one of the family... Andross is _still_ a damned child, kicking and screaming for revenge over being expelled from Corneria." Peppy watched the goose-neck cruiser which pitched without control. Its remains gravitated towards nearby Sauria, taking on an atmospheric glow. The fireball faded from Peppy's eyes; he watched it plummet with a frown. "I loved that ship. The carrier could never replace it."

"I thought Andross was _older_ than you," Star finally said, settling down for a moment. He continued to hold his obstinate anger, feeling robbed of the chance to help his parents defeat a family nemesis. However, he realized that punching the interior of an escape pod did nothing to fix the problem. He slumped into a rear passenger seat, favoring his bruised knuckles. "Shouldn't he be hobbling around with a walker by now?"

The lapin nodded, saying, "He _is _older than me, but he's a '_genetic research_' director. Not only that, he was also a Weapons 'Research and Development' dual major, Junior." Peppy placed a paw on Star's shoulder, calling him that nickname because he knew that Star hated his first name. The boy closed his eyes, appreciative of the consideration for the namesake respect but still angry. The boy released a long sigh, flaring his nostrils in a poor attempt to remain stoic. Peppy sighed then said, "Some say he found a way to either cheat or slow the process of aging and death. Whatever his story is, he's back and Fox will handle it."

Young McCloud glared out the rear porthole, watching the ship sink into a rapidly deteriorating orbit over Sauria. It resembled a huge fireball from the distance. 'GreatFox' …it seemed lame of his Grandfather to name the ship after his father but the team's name was easily just as bad. But for James' son to name _his_ offspring after the _first part_ of the squadron name… pathetic. Star folded his arms. He hated his name, he disliked the unoriginality of his father's name and in his opinion, _if_ the team name was going to be "Star Fox" then he should at least be out there flying with his old man _right now_. Being kept out of the cockpit only infuriated him further – he hated the name even _more_ because it couldn't live up to it.

"Sorry, Jim," Peppy mused thoughtfully. "I thought this second ship would last. I was wrong, old friend."

"Can we see what's going on?" Star finally asked, reaching for the external visual controls. "She said they're going to cover our descent. Let's get it going."

Peppy – the aging rabbit in his late seventies – reached out for the controls and placed his paw against the control lock, which released the automated computer lockout. Star quickly punched in some commands and brought up multiple camera angles on the small screens against the front panel. Slippy's Arwing looked to be in desperate need of repair, since it was the first one into the fray. Caught off guard, the team's personalized ships, which included the Bull Frog and the Sky Claw, sat on the team's Carrier in disuse.

Piloted by Lucy, the large vessel came about. Bay doors on the front opened, displaying massive missiles, waiting to for deployment. Peppy glanced at the screen and licked his lips. "You be careful, sweetheart. You have a teenager to raise, waiting for you on Fichina, Lucy. Play it smart like daddy taught you…"

Meanwhile, Falco was doing no better than Slippy Toad at this point. Fox held his own and Krystal's fighter streaked across the ebon backdrop, drawing an enemy away from the escape pod and back towards the main engagement. The four of them teamed up and came around for a new assault pattern. Peppy reached a paw to push his glasses further up his nose, so he could see what was going on.

Their attacks seemed to be working well on Andross' freakish machine. However, the Arwings, somewhat outdated, struggled to turn the tide against Oikonny's newest invention. This was a job for a heavyweight fighter or possibly even a medium cruiser with battle cannons. Star glanced back at Peppy then scooted to the side to give the old man some space to see what was going on.

Peppy's jaw dropped. Star could see an oddly colored flash, reflected in the old man's glasses. The teenager whipped his head back to the monitor, just in time to see something so completely devastating that it would haunt him forever: A gravity bomb detonation. A sizable section of universe bent for a moment, inverting itself in a massive implosion that caused all four Arwings and the remaining GreatFox Carrier to vanish. Within mere minutes, Andross wiped out the entire StarFox Armada. Star's eyes widened and he spun about, heading for the nearest window bubble, placing his paws upon it, squinting into the void.

There was something in the distance. Some sort of light, perhaps? Maybe hope? Star clinched his eyes shut as hard as he could, until tears formed at the corners of those mismatched ocular orbs…. He prepared himself to open his eyes once more; the tiny light in the distance grew ridiculously bright…

* * *

C h a p t e r - 1

**His eyes _did_ open** and _that's_ where the light was coming from. It replaced the dark, inky void of space and the last vestiges of his historical nightmare. Star sat up in bed, twenty-two years old, reaching up to rub his face. That was six years and some-odd months ago. That blinding ray of hope at the end of his dream was nothing more than the sunlight pouring in through the window, shining in his face.

It was going to be another crappy day. His heart was heavy with memory. Star kicked the blankets off the bed and pushed his feet into a set of sandals. He opened the door of his room and stepped out into the hallway. The subterranean dwelling only had windows in the bedrooms; the kitchen was far darker.

The young fox knocked a few times on a roommate's door in passing. The vulpine grumbled softly. "Get up, old man," he said, heading for another door at the end of the hallway. A few moments later, Star reappeared from the bathroom and walking passed a guy easily fifty years old. Retired Major William Gray; the husky gave a slow nod scooting by the youth, heading for the bathroom. Star paused in the hallway, turning to look at some photographs on the wall.

Peppy Hare was in one picture, shortly before passing away from old age. McCloud's parents were in another picture, one with Peppy and another without. Star's godfather, Falco Lombardi, was in one photograph with Slippy Toad, who touted an electro-magnetic wrench. A few moments passed and Gray came out of the bathroom, scratching at his sides.

"Why aren't you the General of Corneria's armies, Bill?" Star abruptly asked.

"Aw man, c'mon," Bill mumbled in a groggy-sounding voice. "I retired, dude. Star, your dad was a good guy and ole' Pepper was a good guy and even Peppy made a pretty good leader… but I couldn't do military forever. Did you really think I'd make a good General? I can be the squadron leader of multiple flight groups and multi-task everyone's position and what they're doing, but _General_?"

McCloud kept his eyes on the pictures. "You'd have been a better General than the dumbass who's in there now," Star snorted disdainfully.

"Man, not this early in the morning," Bill groused, walking back towards his room. "What'cha wake me up so early for? It's a Saturday."

"I _tried_ to sleep in," Star sourly remarked. "And now I'm ready for breakfast."

"Did you have the dream again?" Bill asked this with a soft frown of understanding. He knew that the boy had seen some harsh things a few years ago and now the poor kid was alone. Young McCloud was a damn fine pilot, however. Bill was able to use his pension to help the two of them secure two old Arwings, stripped of their offensive gear. Star was able to practice flying as often as he could and that was the only thing that mattered, on most days.

Andross Oikonny disappeared. He'd not resurfaced in six long years now. Star had a private vendetta building up in his heart that he wanted to fulfill but he was not in a hurry just yet. He actually wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep right now but that just wasn't in the cards, having woken up from his reoccurring nightmare _yet again_.

Any time he actually experienced the nightmare, it would stay fresh in his mind for hours. Any time he shut his eyes in an attempt to go back to sleep would result in seeing the GreatFox II become a fireball and disappear over Sauria. If he kept them shut, the entire sequence would play out again, including the crash landing over Katina. To avoid the memories, he simply got up and keep himself active until the early morning grogginess passed.

"You realize it's only zero-eight hundred hours?" Bill inquired with a furrowing of his bushy, gray-furred brows.

"Yeah," Star chuckled absentmindedly. "You ever think we'll get a team together and go after Oikonny?"

"All right," Bill said, putting his paws up defensively. "Enough. Do you remember the last time you went into a tangent over that whole thing? We will have a team _if_ it falls together. I've never been the mercenary type and I don't fly anymore, beyond taking you out for a few lessons."

"You _also_ don't approve of the people I hang around with," Star mused thoughtfully, cocking an eyebrow at the older man. The husky returned with a slight grin. "I know," Star continued, "You took care of Husky and Bulldog unit; I've heard it a million times. I know my friends are street scum, but they're still my friends."

"And rather ironically, I once dared your father to find the first slime ball he could… that's how he met your godfather. I've become a hypocrite – sue me." Bill frowned, folding his paws across his chest. "So is this your way of telling me you're going out this morning?" He asked, standing there in the hallway, wearing nothing more than sweat pants.

"I'm self responsible and I aim to get things done. I have a team to assemble so I can move forward, Bill. I _still_ think you should have become a General, though."

Gray repeated his question. "So, is this your way of telling me you're going out this morning," adding, "with the son of that stupid jerk off?"

"You're very perceptive, old timer," Star said, with a grin. "I'm hungry. What's for breakfast?"

"I'm sure a big, self responsible man can get his own meals, right Junior?" Bill cracked a grin before heading back towards his room. "I know I used to be military for years but guess what? Today is Saturday. I'm sleeping in," he added, going back towards the doorway of his own room.

"Don't call me '_Junior'_," McCloud grumbled, shaking his head. His sapphire bangs bounced from left to right and a sigh escaped the fox's muzzle. "That was a nickname Peppy used. Sorry, it just bothers me."

"I can respect that," Bill said, shaking his head in reply. "And clean this place up will ya? I _could_ be living in **M**ilitary **A**ssisted **L**iving right now, with a pretty young nurse asking if I want powder on my tail in a _clean_ den." The door closed behind Gray and Star stood there, alone, in the hallway with a smirk. Both of them knew that Bill Gray had no intent of living in the M.A.L. condominiums because the staff treated half of the elderly people as if everyone was ninety-five and beyond self-help.

"MAL means "bad" in some languages, _Major_ William Gray!" The young McCloud called back through the door. He chuckled, headed to his room and got dressed.

* * *

**Star McCloud readied himself to meet up with his ilk out on the streets** of Katina. He glanced over at a picture frame on his nightstand. The glossy eight by ten displayed his Father and Grandfather's best friend, Peppy Hare. The lapin single handedly raised Star from the age of sixteen until the age of twenty. For four years, Peppy was there to help get the young McCloud through tough times. 

The vulpine pilot pulled his father's red bandana around his neck, tying it at the end then slipped a vest over his shoulders. He reached for a rectangular case on the dresser. He pushed the nondescript box into his pocket for good luck. Once he was dressed, the twenty-two year old glanced into an old mirror that was faded black around the edges. The bluish furred star over his right eye matched the thick cerulean bangs that clung to the side of his face.

The boy lifted a paw up to brush the azure strands back and a frown touched his muzzle. "I'd already be on the team by now," he said, speaking of Andross' crime against his family, six years ago. It stuck with him the way fire clung to napalm jelly. Anger consumed him deep inside. His heart hurt every bit as much as his mind. He clinched his eyes shut tightly, trying to take a moment to calm down. It was hard, knowing that a guilty man ran free. Doctor Andross Oikonny was responsible for murdering two generations of his relatives on both the maternal and paternal branches of the McCloud family tree. Star shuttered. Andross was also a suspect in the destruction of Cerinia – not to mention the death of his mother.

The problem with closing his eyes was that he always saw something from the past that hurt to watch. This time was no different…

…_Two years ago_

**_A younger Star_**_ McCloud, at age twenty, stepped from his room. The apartment felt awkward today. The vulpine pilot's eyes darted from left to right, passing through the living room and stopping outside of old man Peppy's door. Usually the rabbit was up at this hour, drinking coffee or tea from a white mug with a "P" emblazed upon the size. _

_"Peppy, you in there?" Star finally called, reaching for the handle. He gave the knob a jiggle but it was locked. "You all right in there, old man?" he hollered through the door, before knocking a few times. No reply. "Peppy? C'mon now, you only lock the door when you're in bed and you never sleep in this late because you take an ungodly amount of naps throughout the day; are you all right in there?" Silence. _

_"Alright, here goes," Star said, placing his shoulder up against the doorway. He took a step back then slammed his body up against the door. It didn't give. "That was me, trying to get your attention, old man. Get up, so I know you're not kicking the bucket!" No reply. McCloud waited for several minutes but nothing came of it. _

_The kit flinched with the thought of numerous possibilities. But what he knew to be a possibility would ultimately become inevitability. He tried to listen with his mind but couldn't hear the rabbit's thoughts. With renewed vigor, the young fox of twenty years dashed forward, slamming his shoulder up against the door hard. The metal swivel braces groaned with each shoulder attack. They squeaked in protest, but only another moment before the bolts finally gave. He forced the door from its hinged mounts. _

_McCloud's body bubbled forth stumbling into the master bedroom. He took a moment to regain his balance. He stood up straight, his eyes coming to land upon the body of Peppy Hare, motionless in bed. He heard no breathing. The fox's animal instincts told him that the body ceased to live. Star approached the bedside with a confused sort of reverence. His heart pounded and yet a pin drop would have shattered such a silence. Every footfall was massive as he moved closer to the bed. _

_"Peppy…?" he finally squeaked out. Peppy Hare was the last living connection to his father that Star could even think of. The kit's lower lip trembled for a moment, his teeth chattering as if a sudden cold had come over him. His eyes welled up with tears. He was finally in proximity of the bed… of the body. _

_McCloud's paw reached outwards and he touched the rabbit's cold nose. He then reached down for the old man's silent chest, finally bringing his paw up to Peppy's neck. Star felt no pulse and no warmth. The old man had died in his sleep and was gone, now. Star's chest clinched into knots and he slowly sank to his knees at the bedside. This was a personal death. _

_Peppy was more than a roommate. Peppy Hare was his caretaker and the last tie to his parents. It was like living with a grandparent. At twenty years old, the unprepared boy struggled with this blow. His heart wrenched and his stomach turned to ice. Slowly the fox lowered his head to the bed and wept softly. Death was in the air and youthful Star didn't know how to react. _

_Tears stained his fur, matting down the sandy coloration of his face and equally soaking the azure patch of fur around his right eye. He knew he had to get up and call the Emergency services but first thing was first: He had to take a moment to grieve. Mourning would become a consistency for the next month but this initial set of tears was required immediately. _

_There, at Peppy's bedside, the youthful fox sobbed softly over the rabbit's death. Suppuration felt natural; the tears felt welcome and comforted him, as they were all he had left. _

_In the days to come, there would be a small funeral and most only a few media people would show as well as descendants, such as a few distant cousins and his granddaughter, Vivian. Star could never have dreamt that Peppy's memorial is where he would meet his next closest friend and truly the last living connection to Fox McCloud… It was none other than Retired Major William Gray of Katina. The pilot who commanded Husky and Bulldog unit during the Lylat Wars, close to three decades ago_…

…The memory faded. Star McCloud wiped his face with his sleeves and then hurried to finish getting ready. He planned to meet up with a friend this morning. It just so happened to be a friend that Bill Gray detested, despite how close the two boys were. That didn't matter to Star. Nothing mattered right now, except for getting there on _time_ and heaven knows he spent enough of _that_ luxury on memories this morning.

* * *

**Broad day light**; his eyes fell upon an apartment complex at the edge of town, where he had lived with Peppy. Another shudder of disdain ripped through his body for a moment then he pushed the feelings aside. There, they would remain forgotten as best as possible. Really, he bottled his emotions – the only way he knew to deal with them. The faux landscape of greens that lined the silver city streets blurred and his vulpine gaze lowered to the ground. 

Star rubbed his eyes, shaking the reverie. He looked off into the distance. The streets of Katina's Capital were rather nice but the slums around the outer provinces told a different story. Young McCloud ventured down a dimly illuminated alley. The lack of light, even for ten in the morning, felt odd.

He approached a metal door surrounded by a very plain gray cinderblock wall. His eyes shifted, furtively glancing about before knocking on the metal door with the backside of his right paw. After a moment, a slide opened in the center of the door and the soft glow of a lit room acted as an aura to the pair of eyes within. "Password?"

"Are you freakin' serious?" McCloud snapped, adding, "Since when do amateur Mercenaries require passwords?" he recited purposefully. There was a click sound followed by the door squeaking open. Star gave a smirk at the lupine behind it. The other boy stepped back and gestured McCloud inside.

Star knew that Bill hated the kid just because of who his father was. It didn't matter, though. The younger wolf had an odd tuft of bright red hair, the only trait garnished from his mother, a vixen. Much like Star, the timber wolf half-breed's parents named him for his most distinguishing feature. Although, at birth, the little wolf cub was red furred from head to toe; by his early teenage years, only his hair was still red, as well as a strip of fur that ran down his throat, over the center of his chest and tummy.

"Crimson O'Donnell," Star said, narrowing his eyes, offering a paw. The boy thrust his own paw out, taking McCloud's in a complex handshake that the two had been using for the last few months. The complicated gesture reached a climatic high five and then concluded with a half-hug that brought each young man shoulder to shoulder.

Star offered as polite of a smirk as possible, releasing his best friend with a slight shove. O'Donnell snatched a glass bottle from the shelf and placed the bottle-top beneath his left arm. He pushed the metallic cap up against his flesh and fur as tightly as possible then gave his left arm a quick jerk to the side. The maneuver successfully snapped the cap clean off the bottle. "Have a beer, asshole," Crimson added, passing it to McCloud, who received the glass bottle and took a long pull from it.

"What's our agenda today, anyhow?" Crimson asked, taking a drink from his own bottle of beer.

Star glanced down at the glass container he was holding then lifted his eyes back to O'Donnell with a slight shrug. "I don't know. Remember when we used to drink this stuff and it was cool? Before we were old enough to drink it; those were the days."

"I remember when dad used to get it for us," Crimson chuckled softly, shaking his head. "Those were the days, growing up. You were what, seventeen?"

"Yeah and you were sixteen. You'll always be six months behind me," Star chuckled, then sullenly added, "But I suppose age doesn't even matter anymore," the vulpine continued with a slight shrug.

"Yeah, it doesn't really matter. Crap happens: you get older and wiser, then nothing's the same anymore" Wolf's son said casually, finishing the contents from his own glass bottle. The two retreated further into the old building that they were using as a base of operations. They ascended a poorly constructed wooden staircase, leading from the first floor, up to an unnatural hole in the ceiling.

The steps creaked with the shift of weight but Crimson took them two at a time with no worry. Star, not trusting his own carpentry work, took them slowly to the top. The smell of pine had died down since their construction, two months ago, and the assembly of the steps showed signs of an inexperienced builder.

Upstairs, there were two beat up sofas, one of which had duct tape covering a tear in the center cushion. The paisley shapes of tan over a traditional brown backing made it obvious that someone threw this sofa on the sidewalk due to its lack of fashion. It was also obvious that a free sofa, let alone _two_ free couches became too good of an offer for these boys to pass up. It was the only furnishing in the upstairs part of the building, minus a wooden round spool object with a hole in the center.

The cable spool, usually used for running cable off the back end of a truck, became a coffee table. The hole in the center of the large wooden spool remained partially covered with a square piece of plywood. While slightly crooked, it remained at the center to keep things, such as beer bottles, from falling into the hole whenever the makeshift table came into use.

"We need money," Crimson muttered softly, dropping into one of the two sofas. A light cloud of dust wafted out from underneath the cushions, in response to his rather average weight.

"Well we can't go robbing banks," Star chuckled. He saw O'Donnell's quirked brow and cocked his own brow in reply. It seemed as though the two had almost an entire conversation telegraphed by facial expressions and it lasted almost a full minute.

Finally, the half-breed timber wolf broke the silence, saying, "_Why_ are you so against it?"

"Because," Star said, plopping down into the other sofa. He kicked his legs up over the makeshift coffee table. "It will hurt future business if we have a bad reputation. I say we solicit our services. We both have a legal bounty-hunting license. Let's make use of it," the vulpine noted, drawing a blaster out from underneath one of the cushions he was sitting on.

The fox flipped open the loading chamber, noting the weapon was empty. "Who keeps a 'dry' blaster hidden in the couch?"

"Someone who forgot to load it," Crimson replied with a smirk. "Or maybe it was someone who's too much of a pansy to make use of it?" he continued, casting a devious sort of grin. "Which one are you, Star?"

"I'll let you know, the first time I leave unloaded weapons in all the good hiding spots," the Reynard mused in reply, looking the weapon over. He flipped the pistol about in his paw, glancing at the initials carved into the bottom of the handle. He tossed the blaster at Crimson and offered a Cheshire grin.

Crimson caught the gun then flipped it over. Seeing his initials in the bottom, he could only smirk back at his best friend. Before he got a word in edgewise, however, Star snickered then added, "So which one are _you_ O'Donnell?"

"Yeah, yeah. Shaddaup," Crimson chortled softly. "It's pretty obvious that we should look into that job that's been on 'The Board' for two months now."

"Dude," Star frowned, shaking his head slowly. "I bet the pay isn't even _worth_ the hassle." The Board, an unofficial military gift forum, held job postings for volunteers. It was known as The Black Board or just "The Board" because some of these jobs were Black Operations _reject_ missions. Eventually, worthless escorting jobs would pop up, along with other small odd jobs for extra cash.

One of the longest standing listings detailed a trip to the _jungle region_ of Sauria, which was still uninhabited. A Cornerian serial killer on the loose fled to Sauria, terrorized some of the colonies that had sprouted up over the last two decades then disappeared in the jungle region.

"What are our odds of finding that freak?" Star asked.

O'Donnell threw his paws upwards. "Let's at least give it a try. The board claims we can get money up front to use towards supplies to make an extended trip out of the entire mission. This is an adventure, man. What the heck are you waiting for? Damn, Star, free money up front."

"Yeah, Red, and if we never see the guy, we've got to return the up-front payment," Star grumbled. "No one takes it because there is a huge chunk of land to explore and this guy could be _anywhere_."

"We need the money," Crimson snapped. "If we pull it off, it will give us a good reputation to get hard jobs done," He said, tilting his head slightly. "Isn't that what you're worried about? Having a positive reputation so we can climb out of this hole and _be_ somebody? Ironically, your old man was the first person to scout that rock on foot ages ago."

Star just sighed, closing his eyes. After a few moments, he lifted his right paw, waving at the half-breed wolf in an almost dismissive sort of way. "Just do it. Let's contact the agent, geeze. I'll tell Bill Gray that I won't be home for a few days and pack. You're so stubborn sometimes. Is that why you called me down here? Because you had a grand idea to take an impossible job?"

"Damn right it is," Crimson said proudly, standing up and stretching. The lupine looked pleased, cocking a grin at his best friend. "That's why my father can't stand me. I'm an impulsive, impetuous thrill seeker, who flies by the seat of my pants. Man," O'Donnell said, thoughtfully noting, "I've not heard him say that in a long time."

"You've avoided him for a long time," Star reminded, sitting up as well, with a frown. "Go sign us up and collect the U.F.F. (Up Front Fee) and I'll meet you here in an hour, then we'll go to the airport."

* * *

(_Half an hour later_…)

**Crimson O'Donnell stood expressionless**ly in the center of a busy terminal lobby. His stoic indignation caused passing bystanders to feel ill at ease. His most distinguishing characteristic was the fiery tuft of red hair upon his head. It was the color of his mother's headfur; she was a red vixen who had become the mate of Wolf O'Donnell. Something about the young punk inspired fear in the average citizen.

Star McCloud came from the nearby counter, reproached the half-breed lupine and handed over a ticket. O'Donnell took the ticket, looked it over then woefully moped, "What? No window seat?"

"Why don't you actually try _reading_ the ticket," Star said, knocking Crimson to the side with a brush of his shoulder, heading for the security checkpoint down the hallway. O'Donnell glanced down and read the word, _suite_ on the front. He smirked, hurrying to catch up with his friend.

"I understand, Star. I just wish you wouldn't get so touchy. You get like this every twenty-eight days and it's starting to worry me, man," O'Donnell mused, placing his duffle bag on the conveyer belt. Star did the same, walking through the metal detector backwards, facing his friend.

"Do I really get like this _every_ twenty-eight days? You don't say," Star retorted, with a smirk. "And you know I hate that name," McCloud muttered, taking his carry-on bags from the conveyer belt, leaving the security checkpoint behind. "So you got your window seat, I got us the least expensive suite so we wouldn't have to sit in chairs for thirty hours. But I think _you_ should have stowed away."

"Hey, it might have saved money for booze," Crimson joshed with a playful voice. His tone was a far cry from the over-serious attitude that his father always strived to portray in public. He recalled a memory concerning his twin sister, Bliss; a grin tugged at the corner of his maw. "I know of a family member who stowed away on a freighter once and got away with it, too." The fire-headed half-breed gave a broad grin, shouldering his carry on pack. The two friends quickly made their way across the airport, passing various shops and food places.

Once they arrived at their gate, they both handed their tickets over to the booth near the loading tube then boarded the transport ship. Both of them felt empowered and optimistic about their upcoming work on Sauria. It was their first real job ahead of them. Minor gigs in the past didn't compare to this. Star only hoped that the new StarFox Mercenary team would prove to be successful. But first, it was time to explore the transportation ship and find their room.

* * *

A/N:_ A lot is going to happen on their first mission. They'll gain an unexpected new team mate, they'll run into someone that Crimson, aka "Red", used to hang with… they'll learn how to cooperate as a team and they'll get the chance to fly something stolen… all this and more, coming up in chapter 2 and 3. I already have Chapter 2 written and I'm starting on Chapter 3. I was going to wait to upload this chapter until I finished Sly Cooper's LAMENT OF CARMELITA but I had a ton of people waiting for this story and I wanted to sorta prove that it will be a reality… I may have rushed chapter_ 1_ by posting it tonight but I suppose that's better than nothing… I'm sure I'd have eventually re-wrote it 40 times if I didn't post it tonight… Hopefully it doesn't suck or NEED 40 more re-writes. LOL. It's been in rough draft form like this, since I posted the last two chapters of Reflections Of The Future, lol. Anyway, I want feedback on this. Good or bad, I want to know two things… if everyone who was waiting for it finally saw it, to make sure you guys know it's up… and secondly, to see who loves or hates it, so far. Yeah, I know the main character's name is LAME. So are most of the character's names, if you think about it. Leave it to Nintendo to name characters based on what they are… or based on an inside joke - a woman trapped in a crystal… named KRYSTAL? _

_WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT! _

_Having General Pepper dressed like one of the Beatles on the cover of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? Or Slippy's comic-book GF being named Croakella? Or, debatably, Fara Phoenix's surname being pronounced "Fennecs" partially because the word 'fennecs' originated in deserts where the animals actually live, originally called "phoenix" foxes, because they rose out of the sand at twilight… and because English is a sloppy evolving language, it was eventually called "fennecs". And that the Japanese version of her name is pronounced… ah forget it, the point I was trying to make …before my 'Train Of Thought' suddenly 'Derailed'… was that I figured "STAR" McCloud would be perfect (and that Nintendo would love it, if they ever wanted to turn my stories into games :D ), plus it goes hand-in-hand with the prediction made by the Oracle at the very end of Reflections Of Krystal!_

Leave it to Nintendo to name him MARCUS. In my eye. But I'll address the name "Marcus McCloud" soon enough.

_If you don't want to leave reviews or feedback, simply Private Message me or send email to me at RockstarTravestyATaolDOTcom. Thanks! _

_I moved some of the Author's Note from up top to down here, so I wasn't eating the header… _

_Let's see: _

There are a few reasons why I've written this story in the way I have... When I started on this story, StarFox: Command wasn't even a rumor yet. The further I got in this story, the more the rumors began popping up, followed by screen shots. Before long, we had a picture of Fox and Krystal married with a son. Had I known, I'd have waited until all the details came out and started the story then, but… oh well… It wasn't until, like chapter 7 or 8 before we even knew Peppy would be a General, for goodness sakes.

Now, when I started on this, I made the assumption that Krystal and Fox would become romantically involved. How can I be so sure? Aside from all the romantic tension in the Game Cube SF Games, there were 'throw away' lines found in StarFox Adventures that found its way to the Internet. Who did it? Dwight House. Who is that?

He's a Krystal fan with a Krystal Fansite.

He took some of those sound clips were never used in the game and posted them on his website… one of them was Krystal saying "I'll join your team… if you'll kiss me" … wow, hard core huh? For those of you who don't feel like hunting through the game coding for it, just listen to it here: "**http**(colon, 2 backslashes)**/ krystal . dwightdesign . com / audio / adventuresUnused . html**" . Obviously, you have to remove all the spaces I put in, lol. It was never used in the game but the sound file is IN the game, so I think that's cute and… yeah… the point is, I don't have to worry about being suggestive in _this_ story, to people who are or are not fans of something happening in the games…

I'll even cater to some Fara Phoenix Fans later in this story, so just hold tight.

.… I'm crafting it based on history (the game series, of course) and _my_ imagination. Also, as of right now, when I'm starting this story, there are vague hints that there will be a StarFox for the Nintendo DS. No one knows if it's even true but, after chapter 4 and 5 was finished, I saw two screen shots in Japanese and I'm going to scour the internet so I can incorporate what I learn from it into this story. To make it the first to use those elements? Sure, why not. To keep it canon since this story obviously happens AFTER that game? Oh yeah, you know it. So bare with me. Thanks!

Oh and as far as Dwight and his Krystal Site, I'm going to submit Reflections of Krystal and Reflections of the Future to him soon... as soon as I get the chance to sit down and send it to him, that is. Eventually, I WILL get around to it, but for now, let's get to the new story!

Finally, I'm sorry I've been slacking lately. I'm going to try renewing my vows with my wife (Later added note: She decided she didn't want that to happen. Blah) and putting a lot of time into work to keep my job and writing and recording in the studio with my band… So it's just been a lot. YES I'm going to finish Reflections of Peppy, little by little. YES I'm going to finish Nothing Passed Tomorrow, The Curse (It's nearly done!), Similar Paths Taken and the Lament Of Carmelita and Spy Cooper. But to be honest, I had to write a follow up for Reflections of the Future. I mean, the hit-view counter on that story just baffles me! I'm serious. I finished that story in 2005 and, believe me; I didn't work very long on it… I had it done in only 90 days and it ended with under two thousand hits… and yet two years later it's approaching TWENTY THOUSAND HITS.

Anyhow, I'm sorry the author's note is so long here… Just a lot I had to say. This story will start VAGUE… and it will take shape as I get into it. I love you guys! Thanks for reading! Thanks for caring

_-Kit_


	2. Chapter 2

C h a p t e r 2

**The suite was nicer than **an overnight birth but Star still ensured to take a _coach_-style suite. The living room area had a sofa bed and the sectioned off room had a standard-size bedroom set. The coffee table out near the sofa bed had two duffle bags set atop of the wooden surface. Gear was laid out on the floor, categorized and paired by someone who obviously preferred organization when it came to gear. Sitting amongst these objects, Crimson O'Donnell was making a written list.

"You know, only amateurs need a list," Crimson said aloud, repeating something his father once told him. "You know, pup, if you learned how to organize your gear each time you obtained an item, you wouldn't have to do an inventory of your gear," he continued, disdainfully repeating his father's words, spoken almost three years ago. "It takes a sharp mind to run the professional circuit; you're just a kid, even for your age," the half-breed muttered, working up his emotions to harden himself against the possibility of future armed confrontation. It was his way of psyching himself up for something that might lead to a gun battle.

Star stepped into the living room with a bath towel over his shoulders. Azure headfur was fluffy, standing straight up. He had come from the shower only moments prior but listened to O'Donnell's grousing from around the corner. Finally, he came to stand in front of his friend and the gear on the floor. "He wasn't open minded enough to understand that some people have a different style or technique for how they operate. Don't let his words get to you," McCloud finally told the fiery-headed Lupine.

"I could stand 'pup' and 'chump' but you know," Crimson glanced up at Star for a moment, lowering his eyes back to his handwritten list. "I hated 'carrot top', 'red-headed stepchild' and whenever he said, 'pathetic'. That really irked the hell out of me." The half breed wolf-fox finished writing down several more items then folded the page in half and tucked it into his front shirt pocket. He placed the writing utensil into his other shirt pocket and flopped back on the floor, laying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. "My father was the only man who _wanted_ to be a dad and yet_, didn't have a clue_ on how to go about it at times. You don't treat a ten year old like that."

"Didn't he treat you like that all the way up until you ran away?" Star inquired, tossing the towel on his shoulders across a nearby ottoman.

"Yup," Came Crimson's soft reply as his attention wavered between Star and the stucco ceiling above him. "From ten years old until a week before my seventeenth birthday. The only thing he did for me was to give me five thousand credits the day I announced that I was going to leave. And you know what I did with that, don't you?"

"Yeah," McCloud conceded with a shrug. "You put it in a bank and refused to spend it just because you didn't want his help because of the way he acted."

"This is our first real mission, Mac," Crimson grumbled in a tone of defeat. "I took a thousand of it before we boarded the transporter, just incase we needed gear from one of the Federation colonies on Sauria… emergency only, of course."

"Glad to see you're not as bull-headed about things as your old man was," Star said in an appreciative manner. "It may come in handy and I really thought we were going to struggle foolishly with five grand just sitting in the bank. A real Mercenary knows when to use the resources available to him and he knows when to accept help to ensure a successful mission. It's good to know you're going to be open-minded about that money by putting the team first."

"C'mon, man," Crimson muttered. "You know me… I'm a team player _because_ I refuse to be anything like my old man. That is, at least if I can help it."

"Too true," Star replied, picking up one of the hand blasters on the floor. "How did you get all this gear into your carry-on bag without being stopped at security?"

"I didn't," Crimson replied with a smirk. His eyes lifted to his vulpine friend once more and his expression melted into a grin. "I got it from the hold without getting caught."

"Why, I didn't know you were a master of stealth, Red." McCloud reached for a shirt and pulled it over his muzzle, tugging the shirt down over his body. "Either this ship has really crappy security or you're far more clever than I thought."

"Crimson shook his head with a slight chuckle then said, "You were in the shower. I went down and put the bags in the ventilation then ran a cafeteria trey with a packing create up the duct-work rails. I walked back out of the storage bay, passed the security guard and then picked up my gear further down the hallway, where it was safe to do so."

"Getting a little obsessive compulsive with your need to have gear stored a certain way and inventoried?" Star asked.

"Eh, one day we'll have our own ship," O'Donnell murmured, placing another weapon into the bottom of the backpack. "Then we can have our own technique for this sort of stuff; for now, this is what works and will keep us alive on Sauria. Excited? Nervous?"

"Nah," Star replied, shaking his head with a slight shrug. "But I think I'm going to take a nap. You know me, even when I'm energetic about accomplishing something like this, I can just lay back, close my eyes and fall asleep. Well," Star paused with an awkward sort of smirk, "Unless of course I close my eyes to unwanted images."

"Whatever works for you, right? What was your favorite thing to do as a kid besides fly?" Crimson asked.

The vulpine gave it a moment of thought then replied, "Probably learning how to fix things in the hanger bay with Slippy. I found it pretty fascinating; what can I say?"

O'Donnell gave a shrug, turning back to the gear on the floor. "All right, think of _that_ as you fall asleep. Anyway, go do you thing… I'm going to finish up, here. I'm too keyed up to sleep. I don't know how you do it, but since you can, you probably should." To O'Donnell's statement, Star could only shrug, heading for the bedroom.

"Yeah, I didn't sleep for crap last night," McCloud finally conceded. "I'm out, g'night."

"Yup, later." Crimson's reply was relaxed and simple. The door shut and he was alone to finish labeling his gear, packing and strapping it into each of two backpacks a certain way. "Don't mind me," He continued, speaking aloud to himself, "I'll just continue to play 'Tetris' with our backpacks until I'm satisfied."

Star collapsed onto the bed, draping his left arm across his forehead. Taking Crimson's advice, he tried to push the rest of the world away and recalled a randomized time when he was doing something Mechanical with Slippy Toad a few years in the past. The images took place and his eyes began to flutter rapidly as the young pilot entered REM sleep. Before long, he gripped his left paw shut then his right paw, tossing his head listlessly from left to right.

He recalled a time when they had just finished basic construction on an attack bike_. The motorcycle was hovering about two thirds of a meter above the ground. It had been loaded down with untested blaster cannons and a small-stock missile cache. The turret on the front would fire a missile and only 5 small rockets would be stored on the bike at any given time. _

_Slippy grabbed one end and Star lifted the other, both standing on top of a Land Master tank. They were sliding the stylish looking assault bike onto wall-mounted pegs above the Land Master Tank which sat adjacent to the wall, with chains holding it secure. The chains and tethers were used on all equipment incase of emergency, but as a safety precaution, Slippy and the rest of the StarFox team knew to keep their gear well stowed. _

_Star headed for the corrugated stairs and ascended to the catwalk, looking over the railing and asking "So did you need any help with the Arwings? You know I'd love to take one out today," he said, looking down on Slippy, out on the flight deck, far below. _

_The frog shrugged apologetically. "Actually, Amanda wants me to meet her over on the Carrier. We're supposed to go over Theodore's report card, sign it, and scan it back to Corneria by the end of the day." Suddenly, the ship rocked beneath their feet, shaking hard. Almost immediately, the artificial gravity began to shift. The Land Master tank on the facing wall hung from the bulkhead so that the wall it was tethered to acted as a ceiling. The tank teetered, keeping the chains taut. Slippy slid down the flight deck, hooking his electro-mag wrench into the heavy duty landing net in the center of the bay. _

_Star, up on the catwalk, gripped the left rail in his paw, suddenly suspended in mid air. He reached up and captured the rail with his right paw then glanced from port to starboard and back, checking to make sure the Land Master was still secured. For now, it was holding and Slippy was safe, all things considered. Young McCloud pulled his body upwards in a chin-up, nosing a button on his wristband communicator. _

_"What in the hell just happened?" he shouted, hailing the bridge. _

_Peppy's voice came over the communicator in reply, "Something just uncloaked off the port side! We don't even know what it is, yet!" In the background, McCloud could make out the distorted voice of his father shouting out orders. "Your dad wants to get pilots into their fighters and you need to get up to the bridge, where you're safe! Hurry… Peppy out!" _

_The frog clung to his wrench which was now tangled in the net. The ship shuttered again and the sound of metal screeching against metal could be heard from beneath the floor. The artificial gravity suddenly ceased to exist and Star McCloud found himself to be completely weightless as the ship rolled, without control. Star put his feet up against the railing he was hanging from, positioning his heels against the catwalk then pushed off of it. _

_The world floated about him and as he flew through the void, the ship slowly spiraled about, as if he was floating through a slowly spinning barrel. His position closed in on Slippy, grasping the toad by the wrist. "I got you," Star said. _

"_And who has got you?" Slippy replied, still holding onto the mag-wrench which was caught up in the landing safety-net in the deck. "Did I hear your communicator correctly? We're under attack by something that uncloaked off the left side?" _

"_Yeah, it seems that way," Star said. "Open the hanger bay doors and put the force field up, I want to see what's out there." _

_Slippy shook his head in defeat, reaching for the remote on his belt. "I guess so, but if the power goes out like our gravity, your parents would kill me for letting you get blown into space." The left door slid open but, without warning, the right door took a blaster shot from a plasma cannon on the outside of the ship. The left one continued sliding until it was all the way open, but the right one was now damaged. The force field was clear and allowed Slippy and Star to look out into the void. The ship continued its slow roll. _

_The top of a large machine could be seen, coming into view. It lifted like the setting sun, from the way the GreatFox was rolling. Star and Slippy couldn't help but widen their eyes. McCloud's stomach dropped. The machine was massive and life-like, with peppered gray hair strewn about the massive forehead. _

"_Andross…" Slippy narrowed his gaze. If he had eyebrows, he would have surly furrowed them disdainfully. "I'm going to distract him by launching an Arwing, Star. Get Falco's ship ready then get to the bridge. Hurry!" In the distance, behind Andross' enormous ear, the second GreatFox ship, the team's attack carrier used during the Anglar War, glinted in the light of Solar. Smoke poured out of the dual flight decks and its running lights weren't lit. It looked as though Andross had already delt it a crushing blow. The frog tightened his jaw, filled with resolve. He knew his wife was on that carrier and he wasn't about to let Oikonny finish it off._

"_You're going to go up against that thing alone?" Star shouted incredulously. _

_"No, I'm going to distract it away from GreatFox and let him think I'm Fox. It'll buy them time before he destroys both GreatFox ships! All of our extra ships are on the Carrier but I think he's realized that all the pilots are here, on the c-c-Cruiser." Slippy shouted. Star simply blinked. He was rather impressed by the Engineer's show of bravery, never having seen Slippy volunteer for something so courageous before. Finally, the kit nodded and moved down towards the other end of the safety net. _

_Star unattached the net from one end of the deck then jumped upwards, trying to pull the long net towards the Arwing launch machine. Clinging to the net's end in his left paw, he floated through the air until he came to the guard rail next to the closest Arwing, clutching it firmly in his right paw. He held tight with all of his endurance while Slippy used the net like a ladder, climbing towards the Arwings._

_The high-tension landing net was beginning to slip from the fox's fingers, pulling from his left paw. He was straining in an attempt to keep hold so that Slippy could get to his Arwing as quickly as possible. Once the frog was clear of the net, he clamored over his Arwing and pulled himself into the cockpit. Star put his feet up on the now-vertical catwalk and pushed upwards, floating towards Falco's Arwing. _

_It would only take a moment to prepare the fighter. The young McCloud, sixteen years old, moved himself into the cockpit and booted the computer, rerouting most of the power grid so that Lombardi would have stronger shields and forward mounted weapons. To the side, Slippy's fighter catapulted forwards. Star glanced up from the dashboard of the avian's Arwing… how he longed to follow Slippy into combat, but he knew that Falco's piloting was necessary to their survival from this sneak attack. _

_Slippy's fighter tilted to the side, only just escaping through the left door that was open. He executed a barrel roll, narrowly avoiding the malfunctioning right side door that was now damaged. Falco Lombardi erupted through the double doors behind the Arwings. Star pulled himself from the pilot seat, climbing down one side of the vehicle, just as Falco acrobatically somersaulted into the cockpit. He'd practiced it a hundred times and now it was instinct. "Get up to the bridge, your father is waiting for you!" Lombardi said, pulling the canopy shut. _

_Star dropped from the Arwing and skittered away from the fighter, able to feel the heat pouring off the exhaust port, where a proton buildup was amassing. Suddenly, the Arwing was ejected forward. Falco rolled to the left and slipped through the port-side open deck door, passing through the force field, and quickly disappearing. Star sat up, getting to his feet. _

_He rubbed his eyes for a moment then climbed up into his mother and father's fighters. He booted the system for each one, then headed back through the double doors that Falco had just come from, making a mad dash up the hallway. Young McCloud quickly headed for the bridge, only to be joined by his mother from an intersecting corridor, now running side by side through the hallway. "I had Slippy open the hanger bay doors but they took a plasma shot, causing the right door to become damaged!" _

"_It's a good thing you had him do it, then!" Krystal replied while panting softly as the two sprinted up the hallway. "I sense the intention was to keep us from launching at all… I think Andross wanted to disable us before we could counter attack!" _

"_How did you know it was Andross?" Star shouted over the ambient noise of the sudden alarm system that seemed to join the conversation. _

_"I'll never forget feeling such incredible hatred as when I last stood in front of that beast!" she replied just as the two of them reached the doors to the bridge. The deck entrance slid apart and they came to a halt in the GreatFox command center. Fox turned to them and clinched his fists tightly. _

"_Dad, it's Andross!" Star quickly began. _

"_I know, he just hailed us, demanding our surrender. I'm going out next, then your mother." The middle aged pilot turned to his wife and said, _"_Krystal, get him and Peppy to the escape pods, the GreatFox Cruiser isn't going to make it." Then he turned back to his son with a frown. _"_Head to the Katina and we'll rendezvous with you later. Don't worry, we still have GreatFox Carrier," Fox told them. "Hurry. We only lost gravity because he hit our reactor. I have to jettison the engine core in a moment; it's going critical. This ship will be a sitting duck, running on back-up fusion power. No time for personal belongings, just go." _

_Star frowned, turning to Krystal. She looked forlorn for a moment, but knew she had to get back to business. She led Star towards the door, heading for the escape pods. "Meet us there, Peppy," she told the Hare, who stood on the bridge. His mustache was fairly long, these days, covering those pearly buck-teeth. Peppy Hare gave a nod then turned back to Fox. _

_"I've got it Fox; I'm having ROB prep your ship, now. Get down to the hanger and go," Peppy ordered, turning to the controls. "I'll be down in a moment," added the aging hair, to Krystal and Star. She nodded, ushering the boy out of the bridge. _

_The teenaged kit glanced over his shoulder as he was ushered from the bridge, seeing a picture of Andross on the main view screen. The decrepit old ape had a scowling visage of what could only be described as… evil. Missiles were launched from the palms of his massive, floating hands. They slammed into the side of the now-defenseless GreatFox II dreadnaught cruiser, causing the lights to flicker. _

_A computer warning chirped in the background, its monotone demands were for evacuation of all crew members. The ship shook again, trembling beneath their feet. Star couldn't bear it anymore… he'd just lived through this scene the night before and it was happening again, playing out like some sort of déjà vu. _

"_Star! Wake up soldier!" shouted someone from behind. The Escape pods were to the left and his mother stopped in front of one. He placed his padded palm against his thigh, feeling for the rectangular object in his pocket. _

"_I hate that name," Star replied, knowing that was the next line to come, having memorized this scene as if it was a play and he was an actor. Krystal turned to him and frowned. _

"_Wake up soldier!" she barked at him, causing Star to blink rapidly… she wasn't supposed to say that, was she? He couldn't recall, but it didn't feel right. She repeated it again, but it wasn't her voice that came from her throat…. No, it sounded more like…_

...Crimson O'Donnell shook Star by his shoulders, "Wake up, Soldier! You're having a nightmare! Get up, dammit!"

Star's eyes fluttered open and everything sort of slid into focus. The darkened room still had enough light in it for him to make out his surroundings with that natural vulpine vision. Crimson backed away from the bed and headed for the door without a word. The younger McCloud raised his voice, breaking the silence before his friend could depart. "I saw both GreatFox ships, the cruiser and the carrier, under attack. I could smell the smoke billowing through the corridors... Thanks. I didn't want to see that happen all over again."

"Yeah, yeah," O'Donnell replied, shrugging off the appreciation with a dismissive wave of his paw. The lupine pulled the door open and shut it behind himself. After a moment, Star noticed the faint aura of light above and below the door, a light which outlined the frame, had become dark. He would have to start trying a new way to sleep. This time, he tried to think about something simple to keep his mind entertained. It started with the simplistic, three dimensional shape of a random letter from the alphabet. From there, morning came in no time at all.

* * *

**From the cosmos, Sauria had a purple hue to it** due to chemicals in its atmosphere. The transporter ship sank into the stratosphere of Sauria within just minutes Star could see its surface from the windows; the ground began to enlarge and take on detail. The lush jungle region populated the mass below as the ship sank from the skyline and into port at a bustling outpost town. It was one of many small Cornerian colonies and this one happened to be called The Walled City. 

At the center of town was an impressive temple, constructed like a pyramid. Surrounding the structure was what looked like a large moat, at least from the sky. Smaller buildings, one crafted from orangish-red blocks and the other from darker bluish blocks, were on two corners, across from one another, diagonally. The colony was a sharp looking city with buildings, none of which were taller than 10 stories, surrounding the moat on all sides. A brick wall surrounded the general area with more buildings on the outside and occasional roadways that passed over the brick wall. Further out, there was a patch of what seemed to be an industrial complex and beyond that was infinite jungle as far as Star's eyes could see.

The transporter sank from the sky, coming to a landing pad just beyond the northern wall. A bustling airport was against the backside of a small but busy seaport that sat on the edge of a tributary. That body of water led further out to a bay that stretched into the distance, away from the jungle. McCloud turned away from the window and gave a nod to O'Donnell.

"You put the gear back into the storage bay, right?" the vulpine asked.

Crimson nodded, half rolling his eyes. "Yeah, man. It's not one of our carry on bags, it won't be a carry off bag. No one is getting into any trouble for walking around a public transporter ship with weapons today. Relax." The two left their suite and headed for the exit.

Once they descended the boarding ramp, the two young mercenaries began to follow signed labeled "Secure Cargo Release". It was further down, passed the normal baggage claim area. There was a small office next to a guarded conveyer belt. Star and Crimson stepped into the office and took a few moments to identify and register their weapons. Their bounty-hunter license had to be shown and photocopied and assumption-of-liability forms had to be filled out.

Finally, the two backpacks were turned over after each one was quickly checked over by a security guard. The boys strapped the gear to their backs and left the office, only for Star to immediately bump into a middle-aged female fennec, coming through the doorway. The two seemed to knock one another to the ground, leaving Crimson to help his friend up then turning to the female fennec and helping her to her feet.

"Sorry about that lady," the lupine chuckled softly, "My friend has this strange optical disease where he becomes incredibly blind the minute he's outside of a cockpit."

The woman, dressed in a comfortable looking leotard over a contrasting colored pair of sweatpants offered a smile. "It's no problem, I have the same trouble at times," she mused, brushing herself off. "You boys look like you're ready to go camping for a week in the Jungles of Sauria." She looked old enough to drink, and perhaps older than the both of them but she carried herself as if she were already middle aged.

"However long it takes," McCloud replied. The woman approached him and offered her paw. The two shook and Star frowned. He could sense that she seemed to recognize him, even though the two had never met in their lives. Her eyes occasionally flitted to his hair and birthmark, only to return to his muzzle structure and the build of his facial features.

"You seem so familiar," she finally said, then noted, "But I'd have remembered the blue star around your right eye and I'm usually _pretty good_ about remembering a face."

"It's my first time to Sauria, actually," Star lied. It was actually his second trip but the first one was when he was a small boy. Regardless, he didn't really remember any of the colonies being so large. He released her paw and offered a soft smile. She was an attractive woman but in all consideration, Star received mixed signals from her. Her thought patterns suggested she could be in her late forties, possibly even early fifties. Regardless, she looked younger than thirty.

"Yeah? Well maybe I'll see you around," she replied, reaching to pat the side of Star's muzzle before heading into the security checkpoint office.

"I think she likes you," Crimson snickered playfully, heading in the direction of the nearest exit sign.

"It feels like I know her, somehow." McCloud continued behind him until the two found their way outside of the airport terminal. They passed through one last security checkpoint before they were out on the street, where busy looking people were hailing busy looking taxi cabs.

A leopard said, "Don't drink the water," to them in passing. As the feline continued on her way, she glanced over her shoulder and added, "I mean it, boys. It's poison." It was assumable that she had mistaken the mercenaries for hikers, having had backpacks hanging from their shoulders. Still, it got Star to wondering. He couldn't sense anything but absolute truth pouring from her words and before he could really ask a question about it, she was already on her way into the Airport from which they'd just come. There they stood, on the street, ambient noise all around them.

From here, they could see the large brick wall that surrounded the inner section of The Walled City. Cornerians seemed to walk about the area, half-mingled with upstanding dinosaurs. Occasionally, a four legged creature would rumble by and yet all present forms of life seemed to be holding conversations with one another.

The animals of Corneria seemed to be wearing devices on their arms or hips or built into their walkman headsets that acted as translators to allow for communication with the Saurian counterparts. To Star's complete amusement, a Light-Foot raptor scurried by in a business suit with a tie holding a briefcase in his clawed fingertips. He chattered in Saurian over a cellular telephone in passing.

"Man, Cornerian colonies really did a number of change to Sauria," McCloud muttered. On a nearby street corner, a badger sat high atop the head of a brontosaur, with a megaphone, calling for Cornerians to respect the original Saurian way of life and for the dinosaurs to return to their natural habitats. No one seemed to pay the pair any mind.

Upstanding lizards, members of the SharpClaw clan would occasionally pass through the area. It appeared that they embraced the Cornerian way of life, with clothes and modernized gadgets, far more than any other dinosaur in the immediate area. A tortoise approached Star and Crimson, announcing, "Please donate to the charity for the sons and daughters of the Great Invasion. Your donation will go to the children of the survivors of the Aparoid attack on Sauria, which happened nearly two decades ago. Surly you two strapping young fellows can afford a few credits or scarabs."

"Scarabs?" Crimson asked, blinking rapidly.

"Of course, we accept Cornerian Credits just the same, my fine, young sir!" the turtle replied.

Star placed his paw on the Turtle's shelled shoulder and said, "Look, we're on a really tight budget. If you see us come back through this way with really wide grins, hit us up for money then, okay?" With but a nod, the tortoise turned and left them alone, heading to the next set of people to come from the airport's main exit. McCloud glanced back to his friend and added, "I could sense that guy was a huge fraud. Seems there are quite a few here that try to prey on the unknowing. I guess it's that way with any tourist vacation area. So what's _your _assessment of Sauria?"

"Now this place seems modern enough that they should have a National Guard unit capable of finding the serial killer," Crimson thought to himself out loud. Star nodded in agreement and the two began to walk down the sidewalk, heading south towards the jungle region. Their short stroll took them to the edge of town where they happened across a pair of coatimundis and an Earth-Walker triceratops.

One of the animals, having spotted the vulpine and red-headed lupine, quickly approached the boys. "You two, wearing the backpacks, are you heading into the jungle, perhaps?"

"Yeah, what of it?" Wolf's son asked, folding his arms.

"Well, don't you need a jungle guide? I'm Cody and I represent a third of the Saurian Jungle Adventure Team of Travel-Sauria LLC. For a few credits a day, we can provide a tour of the jungle, anywhere you'd like to go in the entire region." The other animal stayed quiet, as did the triceratops. "This is my mute-companion, Andy and our Earth Walker friend is our agency's means for transportation throughout the dangerous and often-exciting landscape beyond the Walled City colony! So how about it, guys? Normal rates are 250 credits a night, plus a 50 credit danger fee, but your first night will only be 100 credits, plus the danger fee, for a total of 150 credits, only half the regular price!"

The coatimundi, Cody, was a quick talker and spoke with a smooth, enunciated, yet friendly tone. Star and Crimson exchanged glances and McCloud could sense that Red had no intention on making the decision here. Star glanced back to the trio and offered a slight smile. "I heard that the ruins of a dreadnaught class starship crashed in the jungle about six years ago. Do you know where it's located?"

"Oh, you don't want to see that old thing, my friend!" Cody said in his all-too-happy announcer voice.

"And why not?" Star inquired in reply.

"Because it's dangerous and furthermore…" The animal paused then he lowered his volume and, in a cheesy attempt at a spooky voice, he added, "There's a serial killer rumored to be stalking those parts. But!" His normally cheerful tone suddenly returned, continuing, "Have no fear, our mute friend Andy, here, has exceptional hearing and the ability to see. He'll be our eyes and ears against any dangers that might present themselves in the wild! Our Earth Walker friend here will provide security on our little tour… so how about it, guys?"

The vulpine pilot shook his head, trying not to grow frustrated. "We're bounty hunters. Mercenaries hired to bring that serial killer to justice. Just point us in the direction of the crash site and we'll be more than pleased to give you something for your troubles," Star told them.

"Well, for a mere 350 credits, we'll take you out there, into that dangerous part of the jungle and drop you off. How's that sound?" Cody claimed in an excited yet annoying voice.

"I like how the price went up 50 credits," Crimson cut in, narrowing his eyes, "And you're doing less work. No tour, just acting as a ferry from destination A to destination B. You do less work and make more money? That's pretty clever."

The Coatimundi smiled brightly in reply to O'Donnell. "But you're also asking us to take you into a part of the jungle where a known killer travels quite often. Some even wonder if he's making use of that crash site as his shelter because it's half way between two colonies that he seems to like terrorizing. Since it's a dangerous area not normally intended for our tour travel, we're happy to raise the price only by such a small increment!" Cody said with his annoying, fast-talking voice.

McCloud lifted his paws. "Enough, we'll pay you the 350 credits, just get us there. How far is the trip?" Star asked.

Cody held a paw out. "Just an hour and a half by Earth Walker. We do, however, require a full payment up front. We'll drop you off in a clearing known as Thorntail Hollow, at the edge of the crash site. From there, we'll head back here."

"Fine; deal," McCloud replied, fishing money from his zippered pocket and handing over 350 credits. The two coatimundis climbed into wooden saddle-bag pouches on either side of the Earth Walker, motioning to a rope ladder hanging off the back side of the large dinosaur. Star and Crimson again exchanged glances before climbing up onto the triceratops' back. Almost immediately, the dinosaur began to head across the street, going off the road and onto a dusty trail that led into the forested area at the edge of town.

"I don't know if anyone has told you," Cody began, "But you need to avoid the water, here. Buy it imported. The water of Sauria is pretty toxic in this hemisphere."

Crimson O'Donnell quirked a brow, gazing down at the guide who sat in his little wooden side-car. "I thought this was the most untainted planet in Lylat," the lupine said, not exactly asking a question but certainly seeking an answer.

"It was and still is in many parts of the planet but ever since that killer showed up," Cody said with a shrug, trailing off for a moment. He finally glanced up at the two mercenaries and continued. "Well you know, gentlemen. He shows up, people start dying; the water turns to sludge and every time a science team comes to investigate the water, they die. So people capable of doing whatever it takes to change the water back to fresh… they avoid this place."

Crimson asked, "What exactly is wrong with the water, other than it being poison?" The lupine had recalled what the passing leopard said, as the two team members came out of the airport. Now he was rather curious.

The coatimundi shrugged slightly, then replied, "No one knows; it could be a simple problem or it could require a complex solution. It's just… sludge. You can't drink it and to try would prove quite fatal. It's a… slow-flowing… ooze. Somehow the plants and trees manage to get enough water out of the sludge that it doesn't even hurt them. I guess the sludge it too thick to absorb through the root of any vegetation. One thing is for sure: it _is_ a smart way to try and hurt the colonies but not the planet. No one even knows who this guy is."

"How many times have you heard of someone coming out and trying to stop him?" This time the question came from Star McCloud, who kept his eyes forward and his ears open.

"I've personally guided three and given directions to about five," Cody said. "I try not to get involved and I've never been asked to go as far as Thorntail Hollow, that's just insane. I _had_ to ask for more money, I hope you understand. And let me also add, if this guy shows up and we're in the area…? Your rates will increase, so you'd better hope we drop you off and leave without incident because we really don't wanna stick around and find out who this creep really is."

"Is that so," Crimson muttered under his breath. "And if you were standing there when we kick his ass, you'd want part of the reward money, wouldn't ya?"

"I'd just want double the fee to have taken you out there. Seven hundred credits and we'd leave you be." Cody gave a bit of a smile. Little did the 'tourists' know that seven hundred credits was akin to half a million dollars on Sauria. They were already making a huge profit, considering the Saurian exchange rate but two guys from the other side of Lylat would never know about their money-making operation being first-time tourists to the area.

It didn't matter. It was too late and the boys were off, heading towards the GreatFox II crash site. At this rate, they'd make it in time to draw shelter by mid afternoon. Crimson adjusted his wristwatch to satellite time, which changed the chronometer from an early morning hour to about half-passed noon.

The group made it in fairly good time, arriving at the edge of the hollow, ten minutes faster than originally guesstimated. The sun was shining down on the clearing, which consisted of a lake passing through the center of the area and a surrounding rock face. At one end, there was a hill with a crumbling brick wall against the side of what used to be a small waterfall. On the other end was a sort of temple door built into the side of a hill. There was a cave in one facing wall and what looked like an over-sized wishing well made of stones.

The trees seemed to flourish but the river appeared just as foretold... nearly-solid ooze. It was only slightly waterier than jell-o. "Where's the crash?" Star asked. "I'll tip you if you can show me where the wreckage is, I've not come all this way for nothing."

"Sure, I guess. How much are we talking here?" Cody asked the question, played his part of a businessman.

"An additional twenty-five?" Star couldn't help but answer the question with a question, naively making it less of an offer and more of an inquiry reply.

"Thirty. There are three of us here, we eat too." Cody smiled inwardly. Star simply agreed and the deed was done. The triceratops carried them out into the hollow, heading towards the path that led in the general direction of Moon Mountain Pass. At the edge of the pass, just as the dirt was changing from brown to blue, the earthly corridor opened back up once more. A massive dreadnaught-class hull jutted from the ground, half overgrown with moss, ivy and strange pinkish slime-like plants that were rather popular in the Moon Mountain area.

Oddly, the ship seemed to be mostly intact. "What a solid girl," Star murmured softly. "She didn't break up in space; she held it together in the atmosphere and even retained her hull upon impact. That's incredible."

"Well, only the top layer of ground is solid in Moon Mountain Pass," Cody said. "A few inches beneath the crust there is a soft jelly-like layer. It's like this thing landed on a crusty pillow or a sponge with a moist center. Had it landed anywhere else on the planet, it would have shattered into a million pieces upon collision."

"I'm surprised," McCloud mused, thoughtfully. "You know a lot for a con-artist tour guide who goes out of his way to rip off everyone you think is naïve. I knew you knew of the crash site or I wouldn't have bothered asking you. But the fact that you knew about the geography and the little things about a dangerous area like Moon Mountain Pass, or whatever you said it was called… well; let's just say I'm pretty impressed. You guys can go now, you've been a huge help," Star told them, sliding down the back of the Triceratops, over the tail.

Crimson followed suit then gawked at Star who pulled out fifty credits and handed it over to the guide. "That tip is because you had honest information about the area. If you guys ran an honest business, you'd stay busy enough to make more money in the long run. But it's _your_ business and not my place to tell you how to run it. Now get lost before you become a target. Oh," Star paused, turning to face Andy for a moment then looking back at Cody with a slight grin. "Your friend isn't really mute. He just fakes it to add to the sympathy factor as part of your money making scheme. But you already know this."

Cody gawked and Andy's eyes widened with an ersatz expression of confusion, although the silent animal did a far better job of acting as though he really was a mute. Even Crimson nearly second guessed Star's assessment based on Andy's reactions but O'Donnell knew his friend's mother was a telepath. McCloud offered a smile, handing over the money, then shooed them with a paw. "Go on, now. Before you two get 'assassinated'." Cody gently nudged the Earth Walker, who turned about and headed back towards the colony.

"That was pretty cool," Crimson said once the tour guides were out of earshot. "But why did you give them even more money?"

Star offered a shrug, his eyes never leaving the sight of the GreatFox II crash site. "…Because I was impressed, Red. I sensed that the quiet one used to be a field expert on the land and layout of different terrains. Whatever Cody spouts during tours comes from knowledge garnished by his silent friend. They make quite a living by lying to callow tourists and over-charging the gullible; the ones who've never been to Sauria before. But whatever… they'll go out of their way to help us again if we overpay more than they overcharge."

The half-breed wolf lifted his paws, gesturing for his friend to stop explaining. "Remember, McCloud. Bottom line is more than enough. Anyhow," Crimson reached back into his pack and pulled out a mid-size blaster pistol. "Let's scout the wreckage then we'll set up camp. You sense anything out there?"

"Not even another dinosaur. This place is freakin' deserted," Star assessed. "I can't believe this ship is still in one piece. I don't care how soft the ground is under the surface… It came down through the atmosphere in a ball of fire at an incredible speed. I'm really impressed."

"Yeah, let's go see what's left on the inside," O'Donnell grumbled as the two headed for the towering cruiser that sat upon its belly on the border between Thorntail Hollow and Moon Mountain Pass. The two of them climbed up a tree and from there, they climbed out onto one of the main guns. Carefully walking along the only gun barrel that wasn't broken off, they stopped at the edge, looking up at the hanger bay.

One door was open; the other was buckled from taking damage and looked as though it wouldn't open ever again. The scorch mark on the malfunctioning door was very light, from occasional rain over the last six years. The dark markings had faded to a light gray stain. McCloud held his paws out at hip height, cupping one paw beneath the other. Crimson nodded in acknowledgement.

The lupine put his right foot into Star's padded palm. McCloud boosted his friend upwards, who put his left foot onto the fox's shoulder, then grabbed a hold of the edge of the flight deck above. Star's paws came beneath Crimson's feet, pushing him upwards until O'Donnell was able to pull himself up inside the bay. The red headed wolf scooted about then un-shouldered his backpack.

He leaned off the edge of the deck, holding the backpack down, clutching one strap firmly in his paws. Star leapt up, snatching the other shoulder strap and Crimson tightened his grip in preparation. Now his friend hung precariously above the ground, three stories from the dusty blue surface. Star climbed upwards, grabbing Crimson by the wrist. The lupine used his free paw to snatch Star by the belt, pulling his friend up, over the lip of the flight deck.

"You know, the first GreatFox had its flight deck _beneath_ the damn guns and hold!" Star grumbled, struggling up with the help of his friend. Once the two tumbled over the lip and onto the deck, they lay there on their backs, panting in a moment of repose.

"Oh yeah? So why'd they have it at the bottom on the first one?" Crimson asked, propping himself up onto one elbow.

McCloud thought for a moment then recalled, "They used to flood the flight deck by sitting the ship on a deep water surface, then launch a one-man attack sub from the deck. That took place well over _ten years_ before I was born. As you can see, the new ship had its hold at the bottom, guns above it and the flight deck above that."

"They must have known we'd be climbing up the front of it one day," Crimson groused. "They wanted to make it a challenge for me to pull you up, knowing I wasn't going to pack climbing rope."

"You know, the last time I was on this flight deck, Andross was on the other side of those doors," Star muttered in a sullen worded statement. "I never thought I would see this deck again. I wonder if this ship is salvageable."

"Sure. A six million credit refit will guarantee that it's ready for space again," The lupine snapped. "And if you could secure a measly ten million, you could get a _brand new_ one without the mind numbingly awful nightmares that are baked into the bulkheads of this _dinosaur_… pardon the pun," Crimson added at the end, hooking a thumb towards the outside as if gesturing to the population of dinosaurs that roamed the rest of the planet.

Star paused, wondering if he should bring up his future family fortune but instead, considered skirting the subject. Finally, he just blurted it all out. "Well my father's inheritance left me about eight and a half million, I'm just not allowed to claim it until I'm twenty-five... for insurance purposes. Something to do with the way their financial advisor gets to allocate small increments until I'm supposedly old enough not to blow it all at once. Pretty lame, huh?"

"You're joking right?" Crimson shifted his weight, now resting on both of his elbows. "You're worth eight and a half million credits in just a few years?"

Star reached up, running his fingers through his hair, laying there on his back. "It'll buy a ship but it won't buy much else. Unless we can sell this for scrap, back on Katina. Then we'll use the combined money to get our team a new GreatFox."

"Ugh, let's call it something else," O'Donnell muttered. "The GreatFox number Three? One, the name is obviously cursed. Two, wasn't it named after your pop, by your grandfather or something?"

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, it was. Not that I ever met the man but he named it for his son," Star replied with a shrug. "At any rate, let's explore this thing and look around for gear. We've got to secure the thing before we can use it to camp out. Plus, I want to see if the fusion reactor will power it up… it would really suck to live in this thing without any lights."

Crimson grinned a bit. "Then we find this killer, collect our loot and set up shop with a new franchise loan. We'll put all the other Mercenaries out of business and make our fathers jealous over our fame and riches."

"I think we'll need more pilots," Star replied, sitting up. "No one will take us seriously if it's just two people trying to get hard jobs done. Did you pack flashlights?"

"What about Violet? And yeah, they're in the backpacks. Let's break'em out." Crimson snatched his backpack off the floor, retightening the straps from having used it to pull Star up onto the deck. "Just think… if the hanger was at the bottom of this ship, it would be half-way buried in the dirt. We might have had to dig to get in and we didn't bring any shovels."

"Well aren't _you_ an optimist," Star sneered, coming to his feet and placing his paws on his hips. "All right, Red… Let's see what's left of this ship then get started. As far as Violet Monroe, let's not talk about her, right now. I'm not her 'Sugar' or her 'Tiger' anymore and would rather not talk about Falco Lombardi's daughter, right now."

"Rawr," Crimson chuckled. "Well, aren't _you_ an emotional Ex-Boyfriend? She's still a good pilot."

"Yeah," McCloud agreed, "But she's still a bitch who manages to fool my telepathy by loving me, then stomping my guts out with her childish trickery. If I wanted 'Trickery101' back in my life, I'd have called her already. Look, we have a lot ahead of us. Let's get to work, Red."

* * *

A/N: _Okay… wow. What a week. First I had this chapter get EATEN and turned into corrupted data by a computer blitz at work, which saved over my flash card, ruining the chapter. I had to go through hell to get bits and pieces of the uncorrupted parts recovered but still lost a good amount. _

_Then, on Friday, I got laid off. Well, at least I'll have more time to write, right? _

_This upcoming Thursday, April 6th, is my first wedding Anniversary. _

_My band is currently in the Recording Studio. It's going to cost 2,000 dollars to finish everything we wish to accomplish. If anyone wants to donate for a guaranteed mention in the Demo CD's linier notes, contact me and I'll give you my paypal account address XD_

_Honestly, I'll let you guys rock the tip jar if you want… I'll write more, probably do short stories for donators and let you hear a clip of the finished product before anyone else lol. At any rate, I'm off to finish Chapter 19 and 20 on Sly Cooper's LAMENT OF CARMELITA, since that's nearly finished. Once that story is done, I'm going to put a ton of time into finishing Similar Paths Taken and The Curse since they're both just a few short chapters from conclusion. I'm also half way through writing updates for Nothing Passed Tomorrow and Reflections Of Peppy, which is a sort of… for-fun story that I enjoy doing on my downtime. This story WILL BE UPDATED fairly often. I won't forget about it. It's something I've wanted to do and have a lot of people that have DEMANDED to see it. THANK YOU for your demands, it makes me feel good to write this! _

_Until the next update!_


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: _Okay, chapter 3 here. I'm going to be taking a very short break here pretty soon (not just yet), so I can spend the next few weeks rewriting and finishing a manuscript I've always wanted to do for publication. I won't be forever, I promise. If I get published, I may not need a new job XD… Although I have a prospective new gig as a manager at Game Stop. My wife is proofing chapter 3 of Reflections Of Peppy which should be up any day, now. Even though she volunteered to do it, she's kinda' swamped with grading thesis papers for her students. _

_My wife, a teacher, will be done soon and have summer vacation… She wants to shop for a publisher and with only a few short weeks left, I want to try and have something for her to take around for publisher shopping. _

Now _you see why I want to take a very short break from Fan Fiction writing just to finish this piece... I've already got 187 pages written. Then we'll get an editor, or she'll edit it for me… then hopefully… a movie deal! Er, I mean… it winds up in a grocery store book rack… AND THEN A MOVIE DEAL! Ehehehe. Aim high with big goals, right?_

* * *

C h a p t e r 3 

**The lupine shook his head, **disgustedly. "This place is a wreck. We'd be better off camping in a tent. Are you really sure this is necessary? It seems like a lame idea," Crimson groused, looking around at the clutter and dirt all over the floor, in front of the half-open bay doors.

Perhaps it was luck that the GreatFox had slammed down upon its belly. It was hard to tell just how such a miracle happened at this point but everything would be answered in due time. Star attached his 'L' shaped flashlight to the front of his vest then pulled his backpack over his shoulders once more. Crimson held his own flashlight, scanning the dim flight deck. The only light in the area seemed to filter in through the left bay door that was wide open.

A crumpled heavy-duty landing net was attached to the middle of the flight deck in the middle of the floor. It had one end fastened into the flooring; the other end was laying haphazardly across the deck. A Land Master assault tank sat across the bay, against a wall with some sort of two-tire vehicle secured to the bulkhead just above.

Crimson spotted it first but McCloud noticed it almost immediately afterwards. "Holy crap," said the fox, approaching the tank and bike. Their restraints held firm, keeping the two machines tucked away in their storage space. "We mounted this bike to the wall just minutes before the attack. What a machine… if we can get these things working, we'll be in great shape."

"I'm more interested in those," O'Donnell mused, redirecting his friend's attention to the last remaining Arwing up on the lift. It had slid halfway off the catapult during the GreatFox's crash landing but appeared to be completely salvageable. "You know, this serial killer scared colonies so badly that this ship was never looted. In that respect, we owe him our gratitude, since you own all of this by inheritance, right?"

"Damn right I do," McCloud replied. "I'd have given anything to pilot that machine off of this ship the day they disappeared," Star said of the Arwing that teetered precariously halfway off the side of the lift.

The half-breed wolf shook his head slowly and frowned. His expression then lightened and he turned back to his friend. "Well, now it's here and we're friends. Things happen for a reason. At sixteen you might not have saved them back then. But now you're going to get the chance to become a good enough pilot that you'll be able to avenge them," Crimson said in a soft, respectful tone. "If you disappeared with your parents or even saved them we would never have met, you know?" Even young O'Donnell had his sentimental moments.

"All right, let's explore. We'll start with the engine room. I want to see if the fusion reactor can still run," said the vulpine mercenary. "Dad had to jettison the main energy core because we took a hit right in our engineering deck. That damn ape knew right where to strike. Four decks lost gravity that day and a few of them made running nothing but light steps. Anyhow, keep your fingers crossed."

"Sure," Crimson chuckled, falling into step behind his best friend. The two young pilots managed to wiggle through the thin gap where the double doors leading into the next corridor were slightly ajar. Once they came to an elevator, Star forced the door open and reached into the empty shaft, feeling for a ladder that ran up the wall of the vertical metallic corridor near the opening. They climbed upwards, heading towards the back of the ship and he pried the doors leading into engineering.

Crimson followed him into the elevator shaft, up the ladder and into the hallway that led to engineering. There was a large gaping void where the main power core used to be. Star approached the emergency backup generator and wrapped his paws around a large metallic lever with a red-painted handle. It took the combined strength of both boys to lift the lever. It showed signs of slight rust from the humidity that had seeped into the ship from the outside atmosphere.

After forcing it, the lever finally raised into the 'on' position, but not without cracking so that it would be difficult to deactivate that same lever. The fusion generator began to hum softly and two turbines inside of a large metal casing began to churn softly. It was a nearly unlimited supply of auxiliary energy. However, the small auxiliary generator was unable to provide enough power to run the ship _and_ the engines; the fusion reactor would only be enough to power any essential systems although it would run for a very long time.

The problem with an emergency power supply of such a small size was that the GreatFox's engines would never have enough power to run, let alone for the shields to operate or the main offensive systems. Tactical stations would be offline and extended long-range sensors would be inoperable.

However, the fusion reactor was running and Star couldn't have been happier at this point. Crimson folded his arms, still holding onto his own flashlight. He was glad for the small miracle but it only proved his point… the ship would be too expensive to salvage. The vents in the room hissed in protest but after a moment, fresh air began to emanate from them.

"Lights?" Crimson asked aloud. Nothing happened. "Does the main computer need to be rebooted or do we not have lights?"

"No, all the commands were routed through a droid that was plugged into the main computers," Star explained. "We'll have to manually find the switch or make our way to the bridge and boot up the computer and release the vocal authorization commands to the ship's public announcement system. So, we'll have to look for a manual light switch in every room until we get to the bridge."

"Exciting," groused the fiery-headed lupine under his breath. "I wonder; you once said that the team never had the chance to do anything with all the weapons and supplies on this ship. It seems that rumors and fear of a serial killer kept people away from this general area and so the ship's not been touched, right?" Crimson sort of grinned.

"Yeah, I can sense what you're getting at," McCloud agreed in a means to acknowledge his best friend. "I would imagine that there are clothes and weapons here, as well as professional mercenary gear and possibly even dry-storage food rations for extended ground mission trips."

Even O'Donnell was impressed but refused to word his pleasure just yet. "Let's secure this ship, one room at a time, until we're sure it's empty," Crimson said, adding, "I know you don't sense anyone but doing so will guarantee it. Plus we'll know where everything is. Won't this fusion reactor also filter the hydrogen transformation unit?"

"Yeah," Star agreed, nodding. "We'll have power and water as a byproduct. Give it half an hour and the showers and sinks will work again, too. This place is ridiculously dusty from seasonal pollen coming in and the stale air not being able to get back out. I'm sure the return-air registers have clogged, grody filters. C'mon, let's go hunting through this place. I'll meet you on the bridge. I'm going to look through personal quarters; you go and look through the medical bay and armory."

"That's _just_ where I would want to start my hunt for gear to salvage. See you on the bridge, Star," Crimson said, patting his friend on the shoulder and taking a hallway on the right side of the room. McCloud turned towards the port-side hallway and departed engineering. He headed for the crew quarters, based on the memory of the GreatFox's layout from 6 years ago. He'd grown up on this ship and knew its design like the back of his paw.

First stop was to visit his parent's room. Perhaps for closure, perhaps out of curiosity. He wasn't sure why he went there first, but that was his preferred initial destination. Putting his paws on the door and his foot on the wall, he pulled to the side, forcing it to slide open on its rusting tracks. The humidity from the jungle was hell on the metallic interior of GreatFox II. Once the door was forced ajar, with the assisted power from the ship's newly reactivated energy supply, he finally strained to open it.

The first thing to catch his sight, within the cone of his flashlight, was a glass case in the middle of the room. He reached out and grazed his fingers across the wall until he found the light switch and flipped it on. The case in the middle of the room caused his stomach to ice over and his fur to stand on end. He was looking at a phantom object.

His mother's Cerinia-made battle staff sat inside the case, abandoned. It beckoned to him as if his mother's ghost was the one guarding the case. He struggled with his emotions but this was a great deal for him to swallow. His mother taught him to wield it from a young age but only a staff fashioned for practice; never the real thing.

His paws touched the case. It was fairly free of caked grime or otherwise thick layers of dust. It wasn't _dust free_, however: there was a fresh coating that had been applied to the container. It probably came from starting the ventilation system only minutes prior, as there was a vent directly above the display casing.

He left smudgy print smears in the fresh and powdery filth, upon drawing his paws back. McCloud gazed at the metallic bar inside of its case which had a soft blue illumination from a low wattage flood lamp built into the base of the case, pointing up. Its shadow was cast on the ceiling above him. His eyes were wide and even the dust that covered his padded palms was the last thing on his mind.

After a moment the mesmerizing power faded and he wanted the staff out of the case. Picking up a chair from the kitchenette, Star approached the case and swung the wooden chair with all of his might. Holding the chair by the backrest, the legs connected with the polymer-glass casing but instead of breaking, the chair shattered to splinters. Having overexerted his swing, McCloud toppled forth, halfway off balance.

Blinking rapidly, Star McCloud threw the remains of the chair to the floor then tightened his paws into fists. "Open, dammit," he said. Nothing happened. He repeated the phrase in Cerinian but still, nothing happened. "If this thing works on voice recognition, I'm screwed." After a moment to think about his predicament, he decided to use an explosive charge from his backpack.

Taking a grenade from his rucksack, he placed it on top of the display case, squeezed the pressure plate to activate the timer then dashed back out of his parent's quarters. The boy covered his ears then he waited in the hallway until he heard the explosion. For the first time, Star noticed that the hallway had a heating register with connecting ductwork. Dust fluttered out of that nearby ventilation grate, from the concussive force.

Stepping back into the room, Star noted that the case was cracked but not shattered. Also, the air register in the ceiling above the display case was blown off its mounting. The metallic cover laid on the middle of the floor, partially covered in rust. "Tough case, but I know you can't withstand punishment forever," Star said, empowered by the spider web crack in the case.

He reached into his backpack and felt for the butt of a blaster then drew it out and charged the pistol by pressing in on the trigger. He flipped the safety off with his thumb then released the shot, which glanced off the case, slamming into the nearest wall. He charged the shot again and fired once more. This time the shot was far more direct, causing the entire blast to be absorbed by the case. The crack enlarged to the point where it was obviously overtaking the structure.

"Note to self," Star mumbled, "Replace weapons with the high caliber gear that dad left on this ship." He glanced down at his blaster with a disdainful glower then he drew his arm back and pitched the blaster directly into the crippled display case. The showcase cabinet remained resiliant which housed the soft blue floodlight. A taunting shadow of the staff covered the ceiling.

Star left the blaster on the floor, placed his paws on either side of the case then lifted. The cracked case elevated with ease, hovering above the pedestal. He elicted a groan in frustration then carefully drew the staff into his paws. It was the first time he'd ever held it, but it was the same weight and the same balance as the staff he learned on. The original plan was for him to inherit the combat staff when his mother felt that it was time to hand it over. Now that they were gone, he simply assumed possession. The case lowered back to the basin.

Suddenly, a holograph was projected from the bar in his paws. A message was transmitted into his mind from the power of the staff. It spoke to him in an un-worded language that was second nature for his mind to comprehend. The vulpine pilot's eyes fluttered shut and he listened to the words of his mother. The holographic projection played out in his mind's eye as well, so he could see her face as if she were standing before him.

Tears welled up in the corners of those soft emerald hues, running down over fuzzy cheeks. She explained that he would have only achieved this staff prematurely if she had met an untimely fate. It really hit the young man hard; he needed to sit on the floor, sinking to his knees. He rested his forehead against the glass case and held the staff tightly in his paws, clinging to it.

"I love you and I'm proud of you, my beautiful son. Remember what I've taught you about our Cerinian heritage. Hold it close to your heart and pass it on to your children and grandchildren. It's all that is left of our race. An encyclopedia database that Slippy recovered from my ship's computer was decrypted into a Lylat computer format. It's safely stored beneath the chest plate of Rob64. I love you, Star. Be strong," she told him. The image projected by the staff began to dissipate. The young McCloud's eyes fluttered open and he simply gawked at the relic in his paws.

He softly recited an old battle prayer that was passed down from his mother, when he was a young teenager. He tailored it to fit his personal plea then spoke in soft yet firm tones. "May the creator lend me strength to consecrate this weapon so that I might wield it with retribution and bring forward the day of reckoning upon _Andross Oikonny_. With this heirloom, I will strike with zeal to avenge my _parents and grandparents_. May all of Cerinia hear this prayer _from beyond the grave_ and lend me their everlasting strength."

The intense moment ended on a breathy sigh. He could only hope to use the staff against Andross in paw-to-paw combat. That day would come if he was lucky. For now, he'd acquired something important from this room and knew he had to be responsible with the staff, so he didn't lose it.

There was a holster for the staff lying on the floor nearby. He lifted the fabric piece, patted the dust from it then attached it to his torso like a belt. The staff went between his backpack and his back, resting along his spine, sitting in the holster that was provided. Immediately, the staff shrunk in size, telescopically shortening itself for compact travel.

This room felt haunted to him for some reason and so the kit made his way from the room, forcing the door to shut behind himself. It closed to within an inch, sitting on the rusty track, then he headed across the hall to his old bedroom. The door grunted but opened on its own power. Desperately in need of maintenance and a can of liquid grease spray, the door shuttered to a halt once it was more than halfway open. He flipped on the lights…

In an attempt to put the prior emotional encounter behind himself, McCloud stepped into his old room, raking his eyes across posters from his childhood. Favorite music bands, childhood cinema favorites, role model characters: They all covered the walls with no particular order or method of décor. A model of an arwing lay on the floor next to its base. The young man picked it up and placed it back upon its pedestal, setting it on a nearby shelf, where it belonged.

Some of his teenage clothing sat in a scattered pile near the bedroom door. It had been scattered from when GreatFox II spiraled about and crash landed into Sauria, six years ago. A videogame system he once enjoyed was connected to a flat screen in the wall, dusty with disuse. Home-school text books lay haphazardly on the floor in his bedroom, near his bed. An academy acceptance letter was on the floor next to a pillow.

The sheets on his mattress were wrinkled and in desperate need of a proper bed making but it never got done the morning of the attack. The room was a history museum, untouched for over 2,200 planetary rotations (days). A shelf next to his bed which once held video games and a few old fashion paperback novels was now empty. Its contents had spilled out onto the floor the day of the attack and most of the games and books were half strewn across the floor, beneath the bed.

This was, oddly, a dust free room. As a young teenager, Star had taken to using the ventilation register above his bed as a storage vault for things he didn't want his parents to find. These objects acted as a filter to the dust and pollen and whatever else could be carried through the air, keeping any dust particles from getting into his room. The fox reached under his mattress and pulled out a bolt driver.

Each side of the home-made bolt driver had a different attachment. One side was flat at the end and the other side had a 'plus' shape. He climbed up onto his mattress and put the Phillips screwdriver end into the first bolt and unfastened it. He then flipped the tool around and used the flat end to unscrew the second bolt in the register, carefully pulling the metal grate away from the mount.

The typical teenage boy kept a great deal of silly items away from his parents. The ever curious teenage version of Star McCloud was like most teenage boys. He had stashed a mature shooting game in the vent, as well as pornographic publications with a voluptuous vixen printed on the cover. While it was hard to hide things from a telepathic mother, he'd learned that simply hiding these objects and not thinking about their existence kept him from getting caught as a kid. Then again, it was possible she _knew_ and simply understood enough to let boys be boys. He could never be sure.

The mercenary couldn't help but chuckle, seeing the dust-covered artifacts for the first time in years. They were absolutely coated in thick dust, having prevented such things from filtering into his room. Star took a short moment to flip through the mature content publication. He chuckled every so often pausing each time he came across a cute nude girl where the page was folded over at the corner as if to bookmark the best photographs.

"I'm sure mom would have been disappointed; this magazine is pretty deplorable the way it depicts these chicks," Star murmured to himself. It was so weird, seeing something again for the first time in a different mind set. Maturity had carried him in the last six years and he no longer needed these sorts of magazines, since having dated a female.

His thoughts turned to Violet Monroe. She was his first… everything. She was also his first heartbreak. The second girl he dated didn't last but a few months because he never really got over the "Fe-l'avian". Or did he? He pondered the simple need for closure - part of him remained enamored with Violet, the other half of him wrote her off some time ago. He stopped on a random photograph of a feathery feline on page forty-two. Oddly, cat-bird hybrids were never portrayed well enough in such periodicals. He hadn't thought of them as particularly attractive in those teenage magazines he once had. But Violet …was beautiful.

Daughter of Katt Monroe, she had more of her mother's racial features in her form, with soft feathers mixed with her fur. Her hind-paws were actually talons and the tail feathers sprouted from around a feline's tail, plus a pair of angelic wings that were attached to her shoulder blades. Exotic looking hair: her headfur was mixed with feathers giving her a unique anime hairstyle. She was hot as hell and shapely as could be but she was still the 'first heartbreak.'

Star shook away the memories and shoved the magazine back into the air vent and replaced the cover. He tossed the dust-covered video game and the duel-sided tool onto the floor near the doorway where a few other games were laying. The youth then hopped off the bed and stepped into his modest childhood living room looking around the area. It wasn't nearly as clean as the den belonging to his parents.

His head suddenly jerked up and his ears perked. Someone was coming into his quarters. "Hey Red, did you find anything cool?" McCloud called out, sensing the presence of his best friend. He did his best to stow the emotions that were still dwelling in his chest from the visit with his parent's quarters, earlier.

Crimson chuckled boisterously, stepping through the doorway. "Are you kidding? StarFox was the real deal, yo. There is enough firepower here to arm two Saurian Colonies against an invasion of whatever you can dream of. I'm having second thoughts about what I said earlier: Coming here was a _great_ idea."

"Glad you finally agree with me," Star replied, shoving his paws into his pockets.

O'Donnell glanced down at the video games on the floor, blinking. His eyes zeroed in on the dust covered mature rated game which Star pulled from the vent. "Dude, you had _Adventure Assault 64_? That game was the coolest first person shooter I ever snuck passed my mother."

"You have no idea how difficult it was to get a copy," Star agreed, adding, "Then to sneak it passed a telepathic mother and only play it when she was asleep or out in her Arwing? Even for a family of mercenaries, that game was _'too violent'_ for a teenager."

"It was cool as hell though, wasn't it?" Crimson said, picking up the case and blowing the dust off of it. He looked over the synopsis on the back and grinned slightly. "Later on tonight, I'll roast your tail in a little deathmatch duel screen arena gaming."

"Crimson, c'mon now," McCloud said, shaking his head. "I may not have had the chance to play it as often as I'd have liked… but I was the _master_ at that game. Falco and Slippy couldn't hold a candle or a prayer, even when they _teamed up_ against me. I'd always … all right, tell you what, Red. You're on. Later tonight, I'll school you in how to lose to the _craftiest_ fox," Star told his friend with a grin.

"You're on. You talk the talk, but can you chalk your walk? You were playing against two old fogies, you just never had a real challenge before," O'Donnell replied.

"Don't hate the player," Star told him, patting his lupine friend upon the shoulder. "Hate the game, when I beat you. C'mon, let's finish up and scout out what's left of the bridge."

"More than fine," Crimson chuckled, grinning at his chum, "You just need time to prepare yourself to learn what losing feels like. That way, you don't cry when you get owned."

"I already know what _losing_ feels like. Her name is _Violet_," Star replied, heading towards the door to the corridor. Crimson couldn't help but laugh at his friend's joke. McCloud turned right and headed up the corridor with his teammate on his heels. Once the two boys got to the bridge, they stopped and came to either side of the double sliding doors. They put their paws between the doors and each boy pulled at them, drawing them apart, slowly.

The bridge had seen better days but what really grabbed McCloud's attention first was the hulking frame of ROB64, powered down next to the communication's station. The fox blinked rapidly, suddenly piecing everything together. "That's why the GreatFox didn't crash into Sauria headfirst. ROB piloted it into a crash landing on its belly! Then he went over to the radio board and tried to call the team. I wonder if we can haul him down to engineering and charge him directly off the fusion reactor."

Crimson approached the robotic form and wrapped his paws around ROB's left arm and tried to lift. "Are you freakin' kidding me, Mac? He's got to weigh a ton. Without a cart with wheels, we'll need at least three or four of us to lug him _anywhere_."

"That heavy huh?" Star replied. He then drew into silence and tilted his head. "Someone is in the area, milling around Thorntail Hollow. They're too far away for me to sense very much about them."

"Let's check it out," O'Donnell replied, walking across the bridge and stopping in front of a control terminal. It only took a few minutes to figure out how to route power to the central computer system. Once that booted up, he played with the controls until he managed to pull up an outside image on the main view-screen. Because the GreatFox's front end was level with the treetops, they were able to zoom in on Thorntail Hollow fairly well. The female fennec they saw back in town was scouting the general area, kneeling down to examine the river of sludge in the clearing.

It was obvious that the status of the water caused the dinosaurs to clear out, leaving the hollow abandoned. "Let's go out and see what she's up to," Crimson said. "Is there any way we can get in and out of this thing without climbing a tree and going in through the flight deck?"

Star nodded decisively. "Yeah, there's a loading ramp that extends from both the flight deck and the floor beneath the forward guns, just above the hold. Let's go out and see who she is and what she's up to. This murderer guy is _our_ job; I don't want someone getting paid for doing what we came out here to accomplish."

* * *

**The female fennec was quite** attractive, considering her age. Star tried to scan her mind to learn of her date of birth. His eyes widened, questioning his own telepathy... Her thoughts and personal experiences suggested that she was in her mid fifties... yet her slender waist, toned legs and curvaceous figure made her the 'older woman' of any middle aged man's fantasy. The woman knelt adjacent to the edge of the spongy river, taking water samples with a small field kit. 

"Hey," Star announced, approaching her. "I think we met back at the Alpha Colony, I never had a chance to introduce myself."

"You can call me _Miss_ Phoenix," she said almost absentmindedly. "I'm trying to figure out how I can change the viscosity of the water, here. Science teams are afraid to come out here because of the rumors."

"Very well, Ms. Phoenix," Star replied, "You may call me _Mister_ McCloud." The fennec glanced over her shoulder, eyeballing the fox then she frowned thoughtfully. The vixen fennec, Fara Phoenix, simply blinked at the boyish figure with the blue hair and star-shaped birthmark over one eye. She only knew _one_ vulpine McCloud and that was Fox. The vixen's thoughts betrayed her to Star's telepathic abilities, causing him to gawk. "You knew my _father_?" he suddenly blurted out.

"Oh my God," Fara cringed, muttering, "You're Krystal McCloud's …_son_." Star could immediately sense the woman's mixed emotions. He could tell that her heart suddenly dropped. He experienced her emotional hurt telepathically through the initial reaction radiating from Miss Phoenix. She immediately supressed the sensations, gathered five small plastic vials, quickly stuffed them into her knapsack then stood up and whirled about to face the two gentleman. She offered each boy a paw.

* * *

A/N: _DUN DUN DUNNNNNN! Fara Phoenix, the flight instructor that came with the military Arwings that an 18 year old Fox McCloud acquired. Yeah, the reflections series is based closely on the video game series but it's undeniable that Fara Phoenix is a name that is distantly related to the game franchise, thanks to the 1993 comics. We saw by playing the games that she wasn't included in the known-release versions of StarFox but what if she was Fox's first actual GF or something? He was a mercenary, she was a military instructor… but they at least had a short relationship and now she feels awkward meeting the son of the woman who became Fox McCloud's wife… She's not a jealous bitch or the spiteful type… but initially, she does feel awkward. A lot of women will agree after reading this… if they once had deep feelings for a man then he married someone else, it's going to be hard for that woman to identify with the child of the wife of her first true love… **if** she still has feelings for that man, that is. Fara does. The way I see it, a StarFox team just doesn't seem complete without the 'old wise pilot' saying, "PRESS "Z" OR "R" TWICE TO DO A BARREL ROLL! QUICK, FOX, SHOOT IT!" Peppy informed us in every StarFox game, to some degree. Especially on ground missions in Assault. "THAT GUN DOESN'T WORK ON THAT ENEMY! TRY ANOTHER WEAPON!" lol. In the end, it says to me that Fara, a year older than Fox McCloud would be perfect as the veteran team member. Just like Peppy was a year older than James (or was it the other way around?) then the hare winds up as the veteran pilot for the team that Fox led. StarFox needs a mechanic, a leader, a vet and an ace. We'll get that on this next generation edition of STARFOX. Who will be the engineer of the new StarFox? Well, I like spoiling people, so I'll tell you. The least likely of all pilots, of course, the daughter of Katt and Falco. Some kids like to rebel from their parents so she became a super-hot gear-head. Lol. Yes, she'll be in the story later; she completes the team, after all. _


	4. Chapter 4

C h a p t e r - 4

* * *

**"While I _am_ flattered,** I'm easily old enough to be your mother," Fara Phoenix said in reply to young Crimson O'Donnell. She looked only a few years older than the lupine. Long lashes, sandy fur and bright intelligent eyes made her seem like a classy lady. However, here she was in the hollow, kneeling over a field test of water samples, proving that she had no problems doing actual work.

"What?" Crimson said, feigning innocence. "All I said was, 'hey, you're cute.' Is there something wrong with that?" The lupine half-breed shrugged but the corners of his muzzle tugged back into a grin. His sharp eyes raked over her feminine visage causing 'Miss Phoenix' to smirk in reply.

"Not at all, but you're not my type and I don't date _children_," Fara replied with a friendly smile. She offered an expression that tactfully blended a dash of attitude with a professional, courteous disposition.

McCloud felt rather amused; glad his friend broke the ice and helped with the tension. O'Donnell knew exactly what he was doing – he changed the topic away from something awkward by appealing to her feminine side.

Yet Star could still _sense_ that Fara felt a bit awkward. After all, she spoke to living proof that Fox McCloud had a sexual relationship with _Krystal-what's-her-face_. However, the fact of the matter was simple: the tension wasn't quite as thick as the Saurian water, anymore. For that, the vulpine was grateful.

Phoenix ran her lacquered claws back over her headfur, tracing a thin purple headset communicator. Normally, Fara possessed the unique ability to detach herself emotionally but she also wasn't prepared to meet the _son_ of her last boyfriend, either.

Star McCloud cleared his throat then asked, "You're only here to do a science survey for the military or something?"

Fara shook her head slowly, "Sweetheart, I officially retired from the Military four years ago." She paused then shrugged and told them, "Two _decades _was more than enough. I started when I was almost 17, after all."

Star simply blinked at her. "I can't believe you just _lied_ about your age," he said, gawking at her. He counted with his fingers to verify the math then said, "Only two decades of service, then four years of retirement? You're trying to suggest that you're forty-one, when you're closer to…" Star found himself interrupted by a soft, well-manicured paw, which covered his maw.

"You know, you're quite a contradiction," she began, adding, "You're well groomed from the nose down but the hair beads and braids, the bangs and scruffy sideburns …they tell a different story. You can't be much older than twenty-one. Just remember: a lady never tells her age, so you'll never know if I'm forty-one or younger."

Muffled against the softly padded palm of her paw, Star murmured, "No, you're _older_ but, in all due respect, _I can't tell that_ by your looks. You don't even look like you're thirty yet."

"Why thank you!" she said with a half-smirk. She then pondered how he might have known her age and smirked. "Know the wrap-sheet of your father's first girlfriend, do you?" Fara mused thoughtfully. "Did he talk about me to you or something? That hardly seems appropriate for a married man to tell his son about the 'first kiss.'" Her paw remained in place with her thumb over his snout and her fingers beneath his jaw.

"He's telepathic, lady," Crimson chuckled softly. "And he's pretty humble; age is just a number based on planetary revolutions. One world's sixteen year old could be the twenty-four year old of another as far as he is concerned. But, as far as _I'm_ concerned, you're just a really hot _MILF_."

"Excuse me?" retorted Phoenix with a sharp raise of her eyebrows. "I don't _have_ children. I left such an endeavor up to other members of my family. While _Mister_ McCloud's father found the right person with whom to procreate, I never did. Why have children with someone other than the love of your life? That's a foolish thing to do. At any rate, what brings two _children_ out to these parts?" She pinched the younger fox's cheek with her other paw and smirked at him.

Star brushed both her paws from his muzzle to answer her question. "The StarFox mercenary squadron is on site to take down a serial killer that's been hiding out in these parts for quite some time. It's a mercenary contract. Would you like protection while you finish your experiment? I'll give you a discounted rate because you knew my father."

"That's odd, I was just about to offer _my_ protection, so you two don't get yourselves killed," Fara muttered, turning back to her field kit. "I suppose I could manage to help you out, since you're half of Fox. It's a respect offered to a fallen pilot, of whom I revered." Fara paused then grinned inwardly and added, "In retrospect, you seem _quite_ the venerable vulpine, yourself. So, I offer my protection. How's that sound?" Her vocal sarcasm caused both boys to smirk.

"Look lady," Crimson cut in, "If you're hanging around when we tag and bag this scum bucket, the money goes to the _team_. Understood?" Meanwhile, Star could sense that Crimson was amused and liked the woman's personality already.

"My word, boys," Fara replied with a near-girlish giggle. "Are you offering your protection of me in return for my protection of you? As far as money goes, I _have_ a retirement pension. I'm out here to stay active and help a science community. Yes, I'm being compensated but only because a fool puts herself in danger for free. And when I solve the water problem, I assure you _that_ money goes to the proper appropriator of said mission." She placed her paws on her hips then told O'Donnell, "Honey, I've gone through the hardball 'twenty-something' aged pilots and in all my years of flight instructing, I've _taught_ quite a few know-it-alls everything _they_ know."

"So you're proposing a mutual campsite for additional protection?" Star mused aloud, turning to Crimson. "What do you think, Red? She does her science thing; we do our hunting thing. It sounds good to me."

"You're the boss," Crimson said with a shrug. "It's not like we have a shortage of rooms on the ship. But whatever."

"Very true," Star replied with a shrug of his own. He then turned to the fennec vixen and extended a paw. "So, do you accept a truce in the name of professional courtesy?"

This whole situation just went completely different than Fara had expected. Bemused, she extended her paw and returned with a soft, dainty handshake. "I think I can manage to share, boys. What kind of ship do you guys have to use as a base of operations? I thought you came in from the transporter. Remember, we met at the station?"

Star hooked a thumb back across the hollow then said, "Follow me. Perhaps you can make use of some equipment to conduct experiments." He then turned and the group began to head back towards the entrance to Moon Mountain Pass. Crimson came up besides Star and the two began to whisper to one another.

"What're you doing?" the curious lupine asked.

Star whispered back, keeping his voice down as the three continued across the hollow. "I'm keeping an eye on her, so she can't accidentally solve our mission. She has no intent on looking for this guy but she's quite capable if he came across her path. I could see it now: She protects herself and brings him in for a reward. Hell no. Besides, she was close to my father and I am quite curious to learn what she knew about him. Also I can sense that she's an experienced and decorated combat vet."

With those sizable fennec ears, Fara heard bits and pieces of the conversation. She heard enough to know that they were curious about her but trusted that she wouldn't try and invade on their contract. At the same time, it put her at ease, knowing that they weren't plotting. She simply kept her pace behind them. As soon as they passed through the granite pathway into Moon Mountain Pass the next clearing opened up to her eyes. GreatFox II sat majestically, regardless of the light organic film, which covered it from sitting in such a humid atmosphere for several years.

She blinked, taking in the features of the ship that so closely held the shape of its predecessor. It reminded her of Fox and she shook her head to clear the emotions of remembering her first true love. A faded red StarFox logo covered the side and made her frown in silence. It was a beautiful ship, minus the blaster marks and damage to the armor in the hull. The thing was… she knew that Fox and Krystal played out their family life on this ship. It was simply haunted with a history that made her feel awkward again. Again, she pushed her emotions aside and said, "It's rather big for such a small team and maybe a few vehicles."

McCloud chuckled somewhat. "It's _tiny_ in comparison to the GreatFox _carrier _that the team also used; unfortunately, that ship disappeared with my father and the rest of StarFox." Sensing how gauche this was for her, Star dropped back away from Crimson so that he was walking alongside of her. He lowered his voice to a personal tone. "You don't _have_ to stay here if you don't _want_ to stay here. We could set up a tent nearby or something. Just let me know what makes you feel comfortable."

"You really _are_ telepathic," Fara groused softly. "No, I'm honored to accept your invitation. It would be advantageous to my safety to stay at …'Hotel McCloud.' I'll work out my issues; I'm a big girl. Is this the first time you've seen the wreckage in a while?"

Star nodded slowly. "Six years. I grew up on this ship. We've already restored complete auxiliary power, since the original core was jettisoned for going critical. I have strange sensations about the happenings in this area. Someone knows we're here but they're too far away for me to know anything else. If your problem and our problem wind up crossing paths, we'll worry about that bridge when we traverse it."

"I think I can manage that," Phoenix replied. "You're quite the gentleman, like your father. I can respect that. I'll get over _my_ issues quickly. After all, I've had plenty of time to accept what I know. It's just the 'reality of the fruits' that sort of… Like I said, don't worry yourself. Just show me what room is available."

Star nodded and the trio began to ascend the loading ramp that they lowered only ten minutes prior.

* * *

**"This is the guest bedroom,"** Star said. Crimson had gone back to the bridge to familiarize himself with the controls while McCloud took Miss Phoenix to her new quarters. It was a guest room and once belonged to Krystal before she moved into Fox's own den. Star didn't feel like going into the history of the room, he simply wanted her to feel comfortable. "We'll have to grease the hinges, so to speak. However, it's in good shape. I'll be able to launder the bed clothes before tonight. I'm waiting for there to be enough water to make use of the laundry machines." 

"You're a pretty good guy, Mister McCloud. I'll tell you what," she said, stepping through the doorway and looking around the living room area. "You can call me _Fara_. Thank you for the room and board." She leaned forward and kissed the side of his muzzle. The chaste kiss brought a soft smile to Star, who nodded in reply.

"Star McCloud… Yeah I know, dumb name," McCloud said with a shrug and a half-chuckle. He reached his paws up and rubbed at both of his eyes. He pressed his fingertips inwards and subtly adjusted the singular green contact that brought uniformity to his normally mismatched gaze.

"As much as I thought Fox would name his son after his father, I really think your name fits you," she said, lifting a paw and touching the star-shaped birthmark around his eye. "You're an innocent in this. It was my fault, really. I put my military career first and things didn't pan out according to plan. Foolish huh?"

Star offered an awkward sort of half-smile. "I suppose I could have been your son if you guys had worked things out," he said, reading her thoughts aloud. She didn't completely feel that way, but the thought _did_ cross her mind. Fara nodded slowly. Star gave another half-smile and casually shrugged "I'm not my father," he added. "But hopefully I'll live up to the expectations everyone seems to have for me."

"You'll do fine," she replied, reaching to pat the side of his face softly. "You have his eyes. Those are good eyes for a pilot to have," she mused thoughtfully. Realizing how it sounded, she glanced away, dropping her paw. Her whiskers twitched with some measure of self-irritation. "Where are the laboratory and medical bays located and I'll get to work running tests on my samples." She reached into her pocket and pulled out four plastic vials of solid water gel. "Hmm, must have dropped one; I should have five… no matter."

Guiding Fara the rest of the way into the room, young McCloud lifted a paw towards a flat panel in the living room wall. "There's a map function built into your television screen. It's only available in this room, because it's the guest room," McCloud said. "So make sure you memorize it before you go walking around the ship or you'll wind up getting lost. Good luck with your findings."

"Likewise," Fara said. "Good luck finding this serial killer. He's rumored to be stalking this area, half way between the two colonies."

"By the way, how mechanically inclined are you?" Star asked, changing the topic.

"I'm no engineering guru but I can certainly hold my own with a wrench," Phoenix said, turning to the bedroom door and inspecting the other end of her new quarters. "Why?"

"We have an Arwing here, but it'd fallen off the lift when GreatFox crashed," Star began. "You've been an Arwing instructor for… what? Two decades, right? I would imagine you know those ships inside and out. I don't want to fly it if something important was damaged. Crimson and I have no way of telling."

"Crimson, huh?" Fara noted thoughtfully. "Yeah, I'll look it over, if you guys manage to get it up on the lift properly. Do I know Crimson's parents? He looks a little familiar," said the fennec. "At least in his face; I don't know many people with red hair like that."

"Crimson O'Donnell. Everyone knows his parents except for him. I mean that in a metaphorical sense, of course." Star feigned a slight smile. "Sad huh? Anyway, Red and I are going to be on the bridge for another hour or so, then we're going to run a patrol through the general area. If this guy hangs out around here, there will be clues. Personally, I'm surprised he's not been using GreatFox as a base of operations."

Fara shrugged and said, "Either he has his own base of operations and we don't know about them or he has some sort of personal reasons to avoid GreatFox. Are you sure he's not hiding out here, waiting for us to go to sleep?"

"We've been searching around the ship to be sure," Star said, "But honestly, I'd sense someone in the general area. I sense something far off but not within a close enough proximity that I would be able to gather intelligence from their presence. All I sense is that they're angry and vengeful… and at the edge of my range."

"Interesting. Can I ask you one question before you go?" Fara inquired, turning to face the young man.

"Yes," Star said, sensing her query. He then answered, "Mom was, in fact, an extra terrestrial. Cerinia was a race of telepaths. Her abilities were pretty strong but I got lucky and inherited her father's abilities, as he was supposed to have exceptionally strong telepathy. I'm just… lacking in experience on how to _use_ the ability properly. They taught that sort of thing in grade school on mom's home world. I got the home-schooled version of those lessons. Anyway, yeah I'm part alien, if you want to look at it that way."

Fara nodded slowly then, in order to stave off the awkward tension, she said, "Lylat is full of races. You're just not one hundred percent part of Lylat and that's what makes you unique. Avians did not originate from Lylat either, in case you didn't know. They settled on Eladard only a few hundred years ago and brought a lot of exploration knowledge and technology to the system at the time… That is part of the reason Eladard is so advanced above other planets – it was quick to embrace technology; now it's one big city.

At any rate, there's no need to be ashamed of being something special and different. I remember reading about your mother when she was on the cover of a Science and Technology magazine. They did that article because she wasn't from Lylat. She didn't exactly look comfortable being portrayed on the cover of a magazine; you could tell that much by the look in her eyes. I didn't need telepathy to know that much." She remembered picking up an old archived copy only a few years ago. Fara attempted to cloud her mind with something other than her old memories.

Star nodded in agreement. "She wasn't. She made it on the cover twice. The first time was an obvious reason… she was an alien to the system. As far as the second time, I think people were quite interested to know that their anatomy was biologically compatible with the reproductive system of an alien species hailing from beyond Lylat. Lucky for me, huh?" McCloud gave an airy chuckle and headed for the door.

Phoenix simply flinched once Star turned away. It was another reminder of Fox and Krystal having a romance. She drew in a deep breath and detached herself from the potency of her emotion. Star also winced, once he was facing away, having realized what he'd just said to her. He didn't mean for it to come out quite that way but it was too late now. "That… was tacky of me, huh?"

To his relief, she acted as though everything was fine. "Thanks again for the temporary partnership," Fara said as he passed through the doorway. McCloud waved over his shoulder with a quick flash of a friendly smile then departed down the hallway. The door grunted shut behind him. Nothing a can of grease spray couldn't fix… and maybe new metal runners above and beneath the door.

For now, however, it was time for her to look up the map and head down to a laboratory located next to the medical bay. From there, she'd be able to conduct experiments on the water samples she took. She wanted to keep her mind busy so she didn't think about Fox and the history that happened here on this ship.

* * *

**The boys were sitting on** the bridge, using the controls to shift power around in an attempt to make use of the long range scanners. They finally decided to pop all the emergency and maintenance hatches, as well as the doors throughout all the halls. This ventilated the ship so that they could divert power from life support to the sensors. 

It was difficult to narrow down and track a weak, well-hidden organic life form surrounded by a jungle of organic life forms. However, with the diversion of power, the two young pilots were able to detect the readings of a complex being, most likely biped.

A half an hour conversation about the matter seemed only to help confirm the realistic possibility that it was a person out there, after all. The thing was, the person was a solid distance by foot. The two young men would have to venture out into the open and find their way through the Saurian Jungle without a guide. They would have to brave the strange sand creatures that had mutated from ground monsters that originated in Moon Mountain Pass.

Also, the once-clean waters of Sauria now appeared to be nothing more than a strange gelatinous set of blocks in the water bed. Yet the grass and nearby threes, which lined the riverbank, appeared healthy and lush. They programmed their computer to detect any movement on the targeted bio-sign. Everyone agreed to wait for nightfall; the lack of daylight would ensure that they could utilize stealth.

"I'm kinda curious," Crimson said, looking up from a holographic map of the jungle region. It was a well-documented atlas of Sauria programmed into the memory banks from Peppy Hare, who was a hobbyist mapmaker in his old age. He'd put the information into the computer when helping Fox save this planet before Star was even born.

According to the date on the files, Crimson deduced that ROB/NUS64 salvaged all the information from the first GreatFox ship through his memory banks. File creation dates appeared to suggest their creation coincided with Fox McCloud's exploration of Sauria. The most recent modification dates were shortly after the Anglar War.

Star glanced up at Crimson who seemed to have trailed off and began pondering in silence. His gaze lowered back to his checklist. "Go on," the young McCloud said, focusing most of his attention on the field notes and his list.

The half-breed lupine gave a shrug, and then replied, "How's that chick doing with the water situation? The sooner she fixes the water condition, the sooner she'll be able to look at the Arwing. You and I have to get that beast up onto the lift, though."

"Yeah, that's going to be a royal pain in the tail hole," muttered McCloud. "I would love to figure out how we're going to manage it. I'm going to finish looking around the ship and see if we can't find anything useful, Red. Go and see if Fara needs a paw. If so, help her out. The sooner she finishes her mission, the sooner we can have her look at the Arwing."

"Sure thing," O'Donnell replied, standing up from a chair on the bridge. He snatched a canteen of water off a terminal and headed off the Control Deck. Star also stood up and began going through all the storage closets on the bridge before venturing into the ready room. His eyes fell upon an illuminated panel on the wall in the dark office.

Star reached to the wall, stepping into the room. He felt around for a light switch then manually activated the lights. The soft recessed lighting fluttered to life, casting the area into illumination. Wall panels, square in shape, also began to incandesce. Their activation brightened the room to where every detail was as plain as day.

There was a metallic booth in the wall and the sight of it jogged his memory. It was a refueling station where ROB64 often recharged himself. McCloud had convinced himself that the robot's charging stations were routed through the main power core which had been jettisoned. However, the recharging station was backlit and shimmering with multicolored lights. A digital indicator on the side seemed to suggest that it was ready and on standby.

Now he didn't have to lug the hulking robot down to engineering. Star just had to figure out a way to get the thing halfway across the bridge, into this room and up to the charging port. It wouldn't be far but there was no way he could lift the mechanical man. It would be impossible, for sure. The clever fox would have to be resourceful if he had any hopes of getting ROB64 back online without the help of his friends. As heavy as ROB was, Star felt he'd probably need at least three or four people to lift the tin can and carry him into the captain's ready room.

He stood in the doorway, between the bridge and the side office, looking back and forth from ROB's form to the charger on the office wall. It would be a difficult endeavor to undertake alone. He just needed to use his brain and so he paused to think. If he could figure out a way to get the robot to be moved just several meters then he'd be in good shape.

First, Star used the metal staff to pry ROB from the communications seat. The hulking metal body collapsed to the floor with a loud noise. No sooner had the robotic body slammed to the ground did Fara Phoenix step onto the bridge. Her eyes roamed over the kit, assessing the situation.

"Need help?" she asked.

"I thought you were down in the lab? I just sent Crimson down to help you out," Star said, blinking at her.

"Guess he won't find me down there," she admitted with a slight shrug. "I came to apologize about how weird I acted earlier. It isn't your problem and it's not that I'm jealous; I simply felt awkward. But I'm a grown woman and I think I can handle it. Do you need help, Star?"

"Yeah, I don't know how I'm going to get him into the side office," he admitted with a frown. "He weighs more than I do and the dead weight is unmanageable to a slender person like me. I could roll him using mom's staff but I'd need at least _three_ poles to evenly support the weight."

Fara crossed the bridge, looking up at the ceiling for a moment. Several of the tiles above her were missing. She put her foot up on a computer terminal and hoisted herself up. The vixen reached her paws up, grasping for purchase on several metal tubes that ran along the ceiling, exposed from the missing tiles. She gripped two different pipes then shimmied along them until her legs dangled out in the open. She lifted her legs then jerked them back down.

Star could sense the thoughts running through her head. She realized she didn't weigh enough to pull them free and so he approached her and wrapped his arms around her ankles. He gently pulled downward. Between their combined bodyweight, both pipes ripped free of the ceiling. Two sections of metallic tubes clattered to the ground. Fara slid down through Star's arms, coming to her feet, her arms resting on his shoulders. Both of them froze for a moment.

"Thanks. Got'em," she said softly, looking away from Star's twin green eyes. It was a bit awkward sliding down into his unintentional embrace but it also made her blush.

At first, the sensation of proximity caused a shiver to race down his spine. It didn't last very long. He fed off the sensation of awkwardness that filled her, disengaged his arms from her waist and turned away, trying not to blush as well. He cast a glance over his shoulder at sandy fennec and nodded.

"Got'em," he repeated, leaning down to pick up the two pieces of pipe. He then carried them over and laid them out, using his mother's staff so that there were three rows of metallic staffs. The two of them were able to roll ROB towards the Ready Room doorway, occasionally taking the pole at the back and putting it in front of ROB's lumbering form. They inched him closer, through the doorway and up to the charging station.

From there, Star and Fara used their combined strength to force the robot up against the wall where his metal connecting bracket made contact with the charger on the wall. Almost immediately, ROB's eyes illuminated and he began to boot up, drawing power off the ship's auxiliary power supply. It only took a moment to go through the booting procedures then ROB spoke.

"Star McCloud? You survived Andross Oikonny. I'm pleased." ROB's monotone reply caused Fara to cringe. She backed away, standing adjacent to Star. The robot then panned his eyes left to match her face to the databank for a name. His archive scan listed her name twice. First, under the personal database as a girlfriend of Fox and again under the media subdirectory, listed as the daughter of a celebrity. "Fara Phoenix, daughter of the deceased _Phoenix Inc._ Billionaire Zerda Phoenix and the system-wide Spaceship Magnate of the same name... What brings you to GreatFox?"

"That _thing_ knows who I am?" Fara whispered to McCloud so that ROB would not hear her question. She feigned naivety, acting as though she were surprised it knew of her. She tilted her head, facing Star but focused her mind elsewhere. She pondered how the machine could have known so much about her father's company.

In reply, he offered a wan smile. "Oh ROB isn't a 'thing', he's kinda' family. They've got speech processors now that will help with his monotone performance. I should get him one. Yeah… apparently, he knows you because you're the daughter of a billionaire; he has access to the ship's archives and stuff. Does that mean you have access to that kind of money?"

"Don't you already know the answer to that question because of your telepathy?" she asked, folding her arms. Fara used the question to test the dynamics of his ability. Her eyes returned to ROB, looking over the beastly contraption. She recalled a mental image of a similar droid at the helm of a military ship from her youth.

"I don't know _everything_ about you," Star admitted honestly. "You have to be dwelling on that fact in your mind for me to sense or determine your thoughts. For example, I can sense that you've seen a piloting droid identical to ROB – he's a rather antiquated model so the fact that you've seen others like him kinda proves your age… I mean… that didn't come out quite right – I don't mean to say you come off as old, I really just mean..." He trailed off, rolling his paw outwards as if trying to look for the right words.

Fara snorted in complete amusement but before she could say anything, ROB simulated a digitized clearing of the throat. The piloting droid motioned to them with a metallic hand, lifted his index finger then said, "Based on her date of birth, her correct age is…"

She gestured the robot into silence with a resounding, "_Shush_!"

Changing topic, the robot suddenly announced, "Mister McCloud, the output of your external body temperature is _escalating_. Are you well?"

Fara cut a grin to Star then patted his cheek with her palm. "Yes, I have access to that money," she explained. "My father passed away eight years ago, in his sleep. A board of directors runs the company. About four and a half years ago, I weeded through the ones I liked, fired the ones I didn't. I simply have _access_ to his personal fortune but don't think I can pull it out of an automatic teller machine. It's all invested into large businesses, programs – that sort of thing. Why do you ask?"

Star paused to consider a proper answer to her question. Crimson would have asked her to invest in a new ship or to rebuild GreatFox – something beneficial to StarFox. However, young McCloud ignored such greedy thoughts in favor of displaying tact for once. Instead, he inquired, "Then why do you travel via public transportation?"

She shrugged. "Because it's free. My father owned the company so I travel free. Why worry about a private transporter?" Fara chuckled softly. "I don't have to worry about the costs, insurance, any of it. I go where I want with public transportation for free and blending into the masses keeps weird stalker-types off of my tail." Concerning her statement, Star sensed that she referred to someone who harassed her out of romantic desires… a lupine named Matthew, who spent the last few years following her around Corneria when able. Only in the last year or two did the wolf finally leave her alone.

"Very interesting," McCloud mused. "Thanks for your help just now, by the way. Also, Crimson and I have a lead on where this idiot psycho might be hiding out. We're going to head out there, try and pick him up and be done. But I suppose we can hang out here until you finish your lab work."

"Actually," Fara said, looking down. "It was caused by chemicals. This area is the thickest concentration of the stuff I found anywhere on Sauria. In time, the river becomes normal again. The crisis will repair itself. The problem is," she paused, turning to face Star. Their eyes met and she continued. "Someone in the area is constantly feeding chemicals into the water to keep it this way. It's not an accident; it's a deliberate attack against the water supply between the two colonies. This guy is trying to kill their farms by hitting the river between towns."

"So you think we're both looking for the same guy?" Star inquired, bluntly rewording her explanation for verification.

"I do." Her reply was short and simple. She then said, "I'll help you guys and you guys can help me. I won't ask for a portion of any fee you guys are contracted to receive. I'm getting money from a science group to simply correct the water problem. I'm a volunteer in this and that's what I'm here for."

"How did you figure out what the problem was so quickly? You were hardly in the lab for five minutes," Star asked.

Fara gave a shrug and a smile. "It was a little longer than five minutes; everything is based on rate of decomposition, quarter-life timeframe and a calculator. On the preliminary computer scan, it shows that this gel is like an ice cube. Give it enough time and it will metaphorically thaw out. The rest is simple: we wait a few hours to see how the experiment turns out when I let it sit in greenhouse conditions. That will give the computer estimation variables so it can conclude how long before the cube turns back to water." She folded her arms and broadened her smile. "So did you want to combine resources?"

"I need to speak with Red about this but I don't see any reason why we can't work together," Star told her. "Not to get off topic, but do you know what those pipes in the ceiling were for?"

"They were a conduit for power; a direct feed from the main power core," she explained. "I saw the label when I reached up there for them. The main core was jettisoned so they're worthless; keep them on the bridge so a repair crew can replace them during the reinstallation of a new core."

"Works for me," Star replied, picking up his mother's staff. "Feel free to check out the ship while I go and find Crimson. I plan to talk to him about temporarily taking you on as a third member to increase our chances of success. We're leaving at nightfall. It's the best bet to be able to go after this guy, undetected." He then turned to ROB and gave a nod. "Don't go anywhere until you're fully charged. I'll let you know what happened when I return. Stay put, ROB."

The machine hooked a metallic thumb over his shoulder and said, "Like I could leave my charging station this soon – as if."

Star cringed. He turned to Fara and offered an apologetic look. "Dad had him programmed for sarcasm; he thought it added a little life to ROB's personality."

"Very well," Fara said. She turned to leave the ready room then crossed the bridge. She headed for the Medical Lab and he followed, seeking to find Crimson who was probably in the same general area.

There was little conversation between the two foxes as they walked side by side down the hallway. They approached Crimson who was leaning in the doorway of the medical lab, his arms folded across his chest. "I figured you'd be back sooner or later. Did you need any help?" the lupine asked, tilting his head. He lifted his right foot, at the knee, placing the heel against the doorway near the base of his tail. His casual body language was the only thing he'd adopted from his father.

She grinned at Star's friend. "I need to run some experiments that require at least twenty-four hours of time to test changes; if nothing changes then my job is complete." The vixen shrugged, lifting her right paw. "I just hate waiting," Fara admitted sourly. "Let's hit the showers and get ready for tonight."

McCloud pushed his paws into his pockets, cutting his gaze from Fara to O'Donnell and back. "We've still got the entire afternoon left ahead of us," Star mused. "No rush."

"Wait," Crimson said, blinking at his friend. "Is she coming with us?"

"That's what we need to talk about," McCloud explained. "Let's go take a walk and inspect the outer hull to document the physical damage. C'mon, I'll show you how to get on the top of this thing. I think she might be helpful but, like I said, let's go talk about it, Red. Miss Phoenix," Star said, suddenly announcing her name before turning to face her. He placed his mother's staff into the sheath on his back. "We won't be long, ma'am."

"Just… Fara," she replied, walking passed Crimson O'Donnell and heading into the medical laboratory. Crimson pushed off the bulkhead and followed McCloud down the hallway.

* * *

**A hatch lifted upwards** and squeaked softly on its hinges. With a metallic clang, the top came back down upon the armored hull of the GreatFox II. For the most part, it was a thick-skinned vessel. There were some places where the Armor had taken a few shots, thus leaving pockmarks in the armored plating. The two boys climbed up from the hatch and began walking along the top. 

"I don't know, Red," Star began, folding his paws behind his back. "The last generation of StarFox was able to benefit from having a vet on the team. There's no way we're getting Bill Gray to fly for StarFox, so let's be realistic… Now we have someone just beneath our feet, practically. I say we convince her to stay."

"It's up to her," Crimson replied. "You might be wasting your breath. Who says she even cares about flying under a mercenary flag, Star." Before Star could reply, Crimson added, "Didn't she _stay_ with the military when your father offered her a _full-time_ mercenary spot? I mean, I don't care either way but what if she still feels that way?"

"How'd you know about that?" Star asked, blinking at Crimson with a blank expression.

"I was bored, waiting for her to return to the lab," said O'Donnell. "I did an archive search for news headliners that had her name in it… one of them said she was flying for StarFox but when a journalist asked if she was a permanent member, her official statement was, "I'm a member of the Cornerian Military. That has not changed, nor will it."

"She's served in the military for… Well, if she's fifty-five then she's served for…" He subtracted fifty-five from seventeen. "Wow, thirty-eight years," replied McCloud. "She's also the daughter of a Billionaire. Plus she knows the Arwing fighters inside and out. We can save money and get some used ones."

"Always thinking ahead," Crimson replied, shaking his head as the two walked along the top of GreatFox. "Leave it to a billionaire chick to make herself look like she's in her mid twenties." Tree tops were level with the top of the ship, save for a large tail fin that stood up in the back. At the far end of the clearing, a massive stone embankment separated Moon Mountain Pass from Thorntail Hollow.

"But," Star said, sensing Crimson's unspoken words. He then gave his friend's silence a voice, "But you think she's a liability. She's too much of a celebrity to keep around and if she didn't go Mercenary for _my_ old man, why would she go mercenary for us: A couple of _kids_. However, I will tell you this, Red… I sensed her 'need' to belong. I think she'd fit in. Let's keep an eye on her and see if we should make the offer sometime soon."

"Don't you think you're being a bit impulsive?" Crimson asked, nearly dragging his feet as the two boys walked along the top of the dreadnaught class vessel.

"I didn't ask Violet to join, while we were dating," Star replied. "Although we could have used an engineer like her, I didn't want to be impulsive. But trust me on this, Red, there's nothing wrong with that hot-bodied vet. If we catch this idiot tonight, then we should ask her. If he gets away, then we were being impulsive, what do you think? Let fate decide, how's that?"

"I suppose. You're the boss," Red said with a soft chuckle. "But asking her to join our team based on the success of a mission doesn't mean she's meant to be a member of StarFox."

Star nodded in agreement, using his foot to draw a line in the coating of pollen. "You're right. I guess I simply see something in her that would benefit us and don't know how to be blunt enough to simply say that."

"Just spit it out, McCloud. I grew up getting nothing more than the bottom line. That's what I'm used to," Crimson said. He suddenly stopped in his tracks, putting his arm out. Star felt the paw brush up against his chest and quickly turned to face his friend who nodded towards Thorntail Hollow. Star redirected his gaze and narrowed his color-matched soft sea green orbs. He lifted a paw, pushing against the bottom of his eyelid to adjust a contact that covered his naturally-blue eye.

"What the…?" Star muttered softly, "Why didn't I sense him?" he half-demanded. There was a person way down in the field. They seemed to be analyzing the spot where Fara Phoenix was running a field kit on the water earlier in the day.

"Does he know we're here?" O'Donnell asked, watching from the top of the ship.

Star grew quiet for a moment. Finally, the vulpine shook his head. "No but I think he killed our tour guide; all three of them. He is now examining a small plastic capsule of hardened gel water that was cut from the river block with a knife. It's something Fara must have dropped and left behind. I sense he rarely goes near Thorntail Hollow, or rather, I feel that he's uncomfortable being where he is right now."

"That's weird," Crimson mused to himself. "It figures; you shouldn't have tipped them so well."

Star suddenly blinked and said, "He also feels paranoid being where he is. He's nervous; he narrowly avoided the last hunting party and has been living off of the fear caused by his reputation but he's really just nobody special."

"You mean to say he doesn't feel like he's someone special?" Crimson asked in a means of clarification. "So does he have a motive?"

"Yeah," McCloud replied, trying to translate the sensations and thoughts he was feeling by means of his telepathy. "He's trying to gain respect and scare the hell out of people. He's intelligent but convoluted; he's just as afraid to die as his victims but he feels that striking fear and terror into the hearts of Cornerians gives him some sort of power and respect. He's angry and vengeful. He feels like he was wronged in his past and that it haunts him. He's disappointed with his personal failures."

"You can sense all of that?" Crimson asked, surprised by the detail of this most current reading. His best friend was basically writing a psychological profile on someone down in a field. "He's the guy then, right?"

"He's the guy," Star repeated, adding, "It's not that I can sense it, he's down there arguing with himself right now. He's a complete wacko. He's insane. He's having an argument with himself right now and is pretty much touching on everything I just said. This guy feels no guilt and has no conscience. His biggest problem is trying to make Cornerians afraid of him and earning respect from some sort of peer."

Crimson approached the edge of the ship, squinting into the distance. They happened to be at just the right angle to see this guy through the treetops and at the distance they were currently at. Star grew quiet again then finally announced, "Let's get Fara and get our job done. We may not get this chance again, let's hurry."

* * *

**Fara Phoenix found herself in the** humid jungle again. She was at the edge of the clearing, watching over the expanse of the Hollow. Her eyes shifted about but there was no trace of the assailant. The late afternoon sunlight poured in from an angle, causing the western wall of trees to cast massive shadows, which stretched nearly to the river in the center of the hollow. 

Once the group agreed that the Hollow was secure, they advanced on where the being was spotted. No one was there but footprints were left in the moist ground on either side of the gelatinous body of water. At the center of the hollow, the river had become nothing more than a squishy, solid stream. However, with the water becoming a squishy solidified form, it was easy to climb over to the other side without getting wet.

The triumvirate moved across the solidified river, following the scent. Strangely, both Fara Phoenix and Star McCloud recognized the scent. It wasn't the scent of someone they knew personally, but the scent trail simply had a familiar, distinguishing smell to it. At the same time, they both agreed that it was an animal that was rarely seen on Corneria or Katina because they couldn't seem to name the race of which the scent belonged.

The last vestiges of sunlight continued to illuminate the sky as the group passed through the Hollow and into the jungle again. They wanted to track down this killer now, while he had presented himself, so that they could be sure of success.

The scent didn't lead into the woods, however. It led to the rock face that lined the edge of Thorntail hollow. There was a cave opening, which dropped straight down about ten feet. The trepid young mercenaries and the graceful yet stoic veteran climbed down a brick-lined portion of the wall following the scent into the cave. Another small obstacle, a dip near the cavern's entrance, was all that stood between them and the doorway to the inner sanctum.

It was a strange, dimly lit lobby. To the immediate left and right was a pair of doors. Directly across the lobby was another doorway with two more on either side. In the center was a well. Random pedestals lined the wall, void of objects. Star glanced around, frowning thoughtfully. "This can't possibly be Shabunga's store," he muttered to himself.

"Who?" Crimson asked.

"Sounded like he said 'Shabunga'," Fara replied. One of her large fennec ears twitched slightly. The Vixen's eyes panned the room. "And it certainly has a prehistoric look but at the same time, it has the feel of a small shop. Let's explore." She walked to the center of the lobby, peering down into the well. "It's empty," she announced.

"I still smell the scent we were following," Star said, turning to his friend. Crimson nodded in agreement. "He may still be here," The fox pondered softly, sniffing in different directions. "All right, people. Stay alert. Let's secure each room in this immediate area first." The three rooms across the lobby turned out to be nothing more than simplistic rooms made out of the granite.

However, one of the rooms did have drains in the floor. Fara motioned to it and said, "They could be for ventilation if there is something underground." The group came back to where the well was in the center room but even with flashlights, they couldn't see the bottom. All that remained were the two doors on the left and right of the entrance. There seemed to be a carving on a stone plate above the egress portal, denoting the way out.

The doorway on the left of the entrance was blocked off only a few feet beyond the opening. However, on the right side, that doorway seemed to have had an off-color back wall. Star approached it, tapping against it with his knuckles. He then frowned thoughtfully. "That's weird," McCloud mused softly.

"What is?" Fara asked. She watched as Star tapped his knuckles against the granite wall to the side, then the first one that had a strange coloration. She approached him from behind, performing the same test. She then turned to Crimson and announced, "The wall at the end of this short hallway seems to be of a different density. The side walling is granite but this, here, is limestone with paint."

"It's painted?" Crimson balked. "Then it's got to be a door, let's find a way to open it. It's just a disguise, c'mon guys." After several minutes of trying to wedge the door from the top, bottom and both sides, using Star's staff, it was determined that they could either detonate the door using explosives or try to drop down through the well in the main room. The three of them spoke on ideas for a moment.

"I'm for blowing this door open and storming the place," Crimson finally said. Fara shook her head, however. O'Donnell turned to face her, quirking a brow. "Why not?"

"It gives away our advantage of stealth if there are guards or cameras down there. I didn't see any surveillance equipment, up in this section. I think we still have an advantage; let's keep it that way," she explained, adding, "If he knows we're coming, he may employ countermeasures. Let's play it safe and drop down the well."

"What if the well is booby trapped?" Crimson asked. "The door might be reinforced, leaving him to feel secure. However, the well might be protected. We're in danger, either way."

Both of them turned to face Star who finally said, "I sense that he's paranoid. However, there is no reason we can't drop something into the well to test its defenses. Personally, I move to find the stealthiest solution possible because I don't sense anxiety or even intrigue. I don't think this guy knows we're here, yet. This area may have bio-sensors but if that _is_ the case, he's not looked at his computer yet. The longer we stand around, the longer we risk being detected."

"Who says he's not some prehistoric idiot who hates the Cornerian colonies?" Crimson asked, un-shouldering his backpack. The redheaded wolf took out a double-ply cord and a portable bioorganic sensor pack. The group stepped back into the main lobby and approached the well. "Who's to say this place wasn't built with that fancy door and this guy just knows how to open it, but there are no computers in his basement?"

"We saw modern metallic drains… or possibly vents, back in that other room," Fara reminded.

"All right," Star said, nodding to his friend. "Drop the line in, let's see what happens." To McCloud's order, O'Donnell complied, quickly dropping the line with the sensor pack attached at the end. It slid down into the well, disappearing from view. Star fetched the scanning tool from Crimson's backpack and opened it, to begin the scanning.

"There is a rather powerful energy source down there," McCloud suddenly announced. "I'm picking up electronic interference and at least four very strong signs of life. I don't know why I couldn't sense them before, but this thing is pretty sure of what it's detecting."

"Nothing has attacked the probe yet," Fara noted thoughtfully. "Apparently this guy has left a backdoor. It's a pretty small fit, but you two slender pups should be able to fit pretty easily," She told them.

"Don't call me 'pup'," Crimson snapped. "My father called me that and I hated it."

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize. It's just that I'm old enough to be your mother, boys. Let's get this work finished," Fara said, first apologizing then changing the topic back to the moment at hand. It was obvious that she had a professional mindset.

"Yeah and lucky for you," Crimson added, "You're a lot _prettier_ than that prick, too." His sharp gaze returned to the entrance of the well and he continued to allow slack into the line, lowering the probe further into the well. Star, on the other hand, winced upon hearing O'Donnell refer to his father with such a sharp tongue. The probe finally seemed to touch something solid and the last few feet of rope were growing loose with slack. Crimson quickly concluded, "It touched bottom."

"How far down?" Fara asked. O'Donnell ran his thumb claw along the remainder of the cable, grazing a niche he made. There were three cuts in the cable; it was his method of measurement system.

"Just shy of two stories," the lupine announced. He ran his right paw back through those fiery locks of headfur then began to pull on the cable, drawing it back from the well. "She was right, nothing happened. I'm not going to complain, let's just get our tails down there before we're caught." Fara and Star nodded in agreement. "Ladies first," O'Donnell chuckled.

"A real gentleman would have the lady go second so that she's protected by a man on either side of her," Fara mused with a slight grin. To McCloud's amusement, he found that she possessed the ability to act a little playful in the field. However, she was correct. She then said, "But because I'm the experienced field operative here, I should go first to ensure no one is killed." Her voice held a hint of challenge.

"Fine by me, don't get fried when you hit the bottom, lady," O'Donnell snorted, pulling the cable until the sensor packet was retrieved from the hole. "All right, let me get the harness out of my pack. Seriously, who goes first?"

"Who is the best climber here?" Star inquired. "I'm not too shabby, but we need the best to go last."

"Leave it to me," Crimson replied quickly. "I don't care what kind of experience this lady has had, once the both of you are down there, I'll lower myself down. Star _you_ should go first, because Fara and I can combine our strength to let you down."

"Agreed," Fara said. "If you can sense anything our sensor didn't detect, you'll be better prepared to react to it." Star nodded and stepped behind his friend, opening the backpack again. Crimson untied the cable from the probe then held his hand out. Star pulled the harness from the lupine's backpack then put it into the half-breed's rusty-colored palm pad.

"Cool," Red replied under his breath, taking the harness and lacing the cable through it. He then shoved it into Star's arms. The fox quickly lifted his left foot, putting the harness over his ankle, then switched to pull the harness over his other foot. He pulled it up over his legs and pants, until the swing-like harness was snug around his butt. He then climbed up over the lip of the well and sat on the edge.

"Hey, don't drop me," McCloud said with a soft chuckle. Fara and Crimson took the cable into their paws and pulled it tight. Star then slid down into the well and turned around, to face the direction of the cable feed. He used his feet and paws to keep from scraping against the wall. It only took a few moments for them to lower him to the bottom. He slipped out of the harness and gave a quick tug on the cable. It disappeared back into the ceiling.

The dull and polished corridor, carved into the Saurian bedrock, glistened in the ambient illumination. Star placed his padded palm against the surface; it appeared to have been shaped by tools that were far beyond the ability of the native Saurian species. However, the smoothness of the granite suggested that if it had been this way for well _over_ a thousand years. His eyes shifted, glancing around the hallway. He didn't see any surveillance gear.

Up on the surface, Crimson was helping Fara to fit into the harness by changing the size of the saddle to keep her from sliding out of it. She couldn't help but blush when he reached to the buckle that was even with her right hip, giving a firm tug on it. She then hopped up onto the lip of the well and began to descend.

Crimson lowered her down to the bottom and after only a few short moments, she joined McCloud in the empty but well-lit corridor. Star helped her to get free from the tricky harness, which brought her down the shaft. He knelt before her, placing his paws on it while she pulled her legs from the device, then helped to pull it passed her knees. She stepped out of it and Star quickly gave a tug on the cable. It ascended up through the hole in the ceiling.

Crimson pulled a pair of heavy-duty gloves over his paws. He took the harness and secured it to the lip of the well then dropped the other end of the cable down into the abyss. Acting out the part of the team's badass, the way his father raised him, he literally hopped into the well. O'Donnell forced his paws out, against the siding, with all his strength. The gloves protected his palms from injury and he locked his arms, pushing his paws against the tunnel walling.

His pushed his feet outwards, using the side of his boots to help in slowing his rapid descent into the well. His noisy maneuver came to a sudden, silent end when he pulled his arms and legs back from the tunnel walling. His fingers clinched tightly, seeking purchase on the cable that dangled down the center of the well. It slid through his fingertips but the tighter he gripped, the slower his fall became.

He came to a stop, clinging to the cord, just as he entered the corridor from the ceiling. His rapid descent ended only half of a meter above the ground. He whipped his head from side to side then issued a cocky grin to the others. "_That's_ how you do it, gang," he announced.

"Only a novice puts his life in danger like that," Fara said in a flip tone of voice. "You're not going to go around taking the 'dangerous course' of action every single time, are you?" Her voice lowered in volume but her tone remained sharp, adding, "As much as we women appreciate a show off, a professional doesn't need an injured team mate on their paws, Mr. O'Donnell."

Crimson took the gloves off and dropped them to the ground. He immediately ran five velvet-padded digits up through his blazing, tousled headfur with a sly grin. "You're _beautiful_ when you're angry," he announced airily. "Bark my name."

Fara rolled her eyes. "Children remain _so_ brave until the first time they break their leg. They're usually a bit more cautious when reality catches up with them," Phoenix rebutted. "And right now, you're acting like that certain 'prick' and don't even realize it, yet. You're just like him, from what I've seen so far."

O'Donnell's gaze narrowed, glaring at her. "I'm _nothing_ like my father. He never appreciated effort, humility or courage; only showmanship and power. Also, I never _insulted_ either of you for going down with a harness." Slowly but surely, his aggressions faded from his voice. "If I had someone to lower me down, I'd have used the harness, too. Now, let's quit the bickering before we start an argument. I admit I was wrong, let's just get on with it, okay?" By the end of his statement, his attitude had softened into a normal tone.

"Fair enough," Fara concurred. "I agree, and I respect a man who can admit when he was wrong; there is no need for admonishment. Let's get it together and find this scumbag who keeps polluting the water. I thought you guys said he was in the jungle area beyond the Hollow? Looks to me like he's directly _beneath_ the hollow."

"I have no idea," Star sighed in reply. "Maybe the GreatFox sensors were wrong, maybe this guy has multiple hiding places or maybe this network of tunnels leads _away_ from the hollow."

"A distinct possibility of all three accounts," Fara mused aloud. "Get your little sensor gear back out, let's see which way leads us to the life forms that you guys detected down here."

"You think he's got a small group of buddies who help him pull jobs?" Crimson asked his teammate.

"No," Star said softly. "Now that I'm closer to the beings down here, I'm sensing a lot of strange frustration and a sensation of partial defeat. I can feel pain and boredom that seems to be separate from the paranoid anger that is emanating from the opposite direction."

"Meaning?" Crimson folded his arms.

Phoenix tilted her head, placing a paw upon her hip. "One guy is the killer, the other four are hostages or guards being forced to work against their will," Fara deduced.

"That's what I'm thinking," Star said, agreeing with the fennec. "Let's head towards the four down the hall. We should probably help them." McCloud glanced over his shoulder, seeing Red and the fennec vixen nod in agreement. He then crooked a finger at them, "Follow me, you two." With that, he turned to the right and began walking down the hallway.

* * *

A/N: _Now that we got all that unsightly unpleasant story stuff and character development stuff and Stuffy stuff out of the way, we can start heading into the action scenes. Well, some at least. And stuff. Stuff is stuff-tastic. Anyhow, I hardly edited this chapter; I've got to be at work in an hour and a half and didn't feel like having this sit on my PC for another day. I've had Reflections of Peppy Chapter3 done for like…. A month. It's going to be posted very soon :)_

_I've made MASSIVE and quite positive strides on my original fiction manuscript. It needed a full overhaul re-write. And still does in a lot of places but I've written over 35 pages to it in the last few days. :) Also, my new job is an assistant manager at a GameStop. It's not bad. Pay is fairly decent, better than my last job at least. Nothing I'd make a career out of, though. _

_At any rate, thanks for reading! I've received very nice reviews on this story before. Some people are telling me that they kinda like this team and the way it's growing. Which is a very sweet thing to hear in consideration that I'm basically writing about the replacement of StarFox. I expected some serious flame, to be quite honest. Thanks for reading thusfar. I still have a lot of project stuff. _

_The new chapter of THE CURSE is nearly finished. I've just got to wait for that spark of the moment for something to come to me to wrap it up. That and work, lol. Busy schedule. Anyhow, I've got another chapter of Nothing Passed Tomorrow and Similar Paths Taken to finish. Also, My SLY COOPER story, Lament Of Carmelita, which seems to be my most popular story thus far (7000 hits and I've only been working on it for a few months, plus over 150 reviews) has a chapter coming very soon. Someone was nice enough to compare me to DAN BROWN in that story, because I'm going WAY over the top in detail / dementia in that story. :) _

_  
Anyway, thanks for reading. _

_:D_

_-Kit _


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: _I had about 11 pages written with intent to continue further for this chapter. Then, because I was in a strange mood, I re-read a few lines, skimmed through it, shook my head and decided that it was trash. I started over, re-writing the entire chapter although I archived the original piece just for haha's. That's why this chapter took so long_ :) _Yes, I plan for another dream/remembering sequence for Star, it happens real soon. So yeah, I re-wrote Chapter 5 and made it completely different from the last version of chapter 5._

_Only the best for my readers; I don't want to post trash. I want to post action! Maybe the real mood was whatever I felt while I wrote it the first time around… then I went back and said "what was I smoking here? It's boring and lame!" Or maybe I was in the strange mood when re-reading the first version. Who knows? Anyway… may I present: Chapter5! _

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C H A P T E R _five_

**The group made their way** down the granite corridor. The walls seemed close enough together that a typical Land Master VII assault vehicle would not be able to storm this base. Occasionally the walls had metallic objects, triangular in shape, which were bolted in place. Crimson stopped for a moment to examine one.

"They're here to serve a defensive purpose," Fara noted casually as the group paused to gather around O'Donnell. "If a tank with a drill mechanism were to infiltrate this complex, these metal bits on the wall would tear holes in the tank's hull as it passed through."

"It sounds to me like this guy doesn't want any visitors," Crimson replied, touching the tip of the triangular metal object with his paw. It wasn't razor sharp but it was certainly a dense, cast iron block with a pointy shape. He tilted his head then frowned.

"What?" Fara asked, leaning in for a closer look. She then reached a paw out and touched the side of the metallic point. "Dried blood?"

"Exactly," Crimson said. "What do you make of this, McCloud?"

"We'll know when we get down the hall," Star mused, nodding his head to the side, motioning to the rest of the hallway, ahead of them. The group continued down the corridor until it opened at the end. There were four dinosaurs in this room, each chained to the wall by their necks and feet with crude looking feed bowls placed before each one.

One was from the Thorntail Tribe, his studded back plates and the boney knot at the tip of his tail gave him away for his species. Next in line was a smaller looking Biped dinosaur from the Lightfoot Tribe. Beyond him, there was an extremely rare pterodactyl from the Cloudrunner Tribe which was thought to be extinct, until now. Finally, in the back corner, was a large triceratops-like dinosaur without the horns.

Instead, this dinosaur had a large bone plate around his head which fanned out in a protective shield around his neck. It was the king of the Earthwalker Tribe. Star passed the first three dinosaurs, stopping in front of the Earthwalker King, gazing up at him.

Almost immediately, the large dinosaur opened its maw, speaking in the complicated Saurian lexicon. Only Star was able to understand it, by use of his telepathic abilities. His face faulted, glaring at the dinosaur as if partially insulted. Crimson approached his friend, folding his arms. "What did the dude say?"

Star never tore his eyes from the Earthwalker King. "He says he prayed to the Krazoa Gods for StarFox to save him and his prayer was answered. But then he asked where Fox and Krystal were."

Crimson blinked, glancing from Star up to the large creature, furrowing his brows in surprise. "He knew them? He recognized us?"

"No Red," McCloud said, shaking his head slowly, keeping his eyes on the large dinosaur. "He recognized me, somehow, as the son of Fox and Krystal. I don't know how; anyway, they saved this planet twice." McCloud then changed his tone and spoke slowly in the Saurian language, drawing the vocabulary off of the minds of the dinosaurs around him. His words were slow, broken and unsure sounding but confidence seemed to grow in his tone as he spoke more.

The dinosaur replied, once again causing McCloud to blink in what could only be construed as shock. Before anyone could ask, the vulpine simply stated, "He says he's a member of StarFox."

"How in the hell could _he_ be a member of StarFox?" Crimson snorted. Fara approached McCloud and O'Donnell, looking the creatures over, the interest painted on her visage. The dinosaur continued to speak in the complicated Saurian language. His lingo was impossible to discern.

Star listened for a moment then translated. "He claims he has proof, but it's beneath his neck and that I would have to look for myself," he explained, kneeling down and looking beneath the dinosaur's large jaw. After a moment, Star simply elicited a sharp drawing of breath. His gasp garnished the intense interest of both Fara and Crimson, who knelt down to look as well.

Beneath the creature's neck hung a StarFox pendant. These pendants were extremely rare. James and Fox McCloud only handed them out to people who were responsible for saving or helping the team in a way that could only be deemed as 'extraordinary'.

Star simply said, "My father somehow knew this creature. And this guy was somehow responsible for saving my father's life or helping him immensely. This is incredible." Following that, the dinosaur began to speak once more.

Star crawled out from beneath the dinosaur's mandible and stood up, dusting off his knees. Fara and Crimson followed suite, staying quiet for a moment. McCloud then translated. "His name is King Tricky, leader of the Earthwalker tribe and that I smell like my parents and look like a mix between them." Star paused, listening to another short statement from the large beast before adding, "He also said that all four of these dinosaurs are tribal leaders. Until he was captured, even he thought that the Cloud Runners had been wiped out by the Aparoid invasion about two and a half decades ago. Apparently whoever we're dealing with knew better and captured each tribal leader. The Sharp Claw leader, the high top leader and other various dinosaur types are being held in a different location."

Star began to walk around Tricky, looking him over. A dispassionate look came to his face, his eyes growing cold. He lifted a paw, motioning for Fara to come over. The fennec vixen passed O'Donnell and came to stand besides Star, turning her head to see what he was glaring at. Scrapes and cuts could be seen along the side of the Earthwalker. Almost immediately, she came to the same conclusion as McCloud, only she vocalized it.

"I can't believe whoever this guy is was cruel enough to force these poor creatures to walk down those narrow halls with those pointy iron blocks on the walls." Her voice sounded sad, full of concern. She was already in an awkward mood from having Star's vocalized translation of the dinosaur's wording reconfirm that Star was a byproduct of Fox's romance with another woman. Now she was filled with empathy and concern for the creature, itself.

"This jerk," Crimson said, "whoever he is, needs to be put on ice. He sounds like a real asshole to me."

"Agreed," McCloud said, adding, "But I somehow think that there is a reason for this; they're all tribal leaders with clout."

"He's holding them hostage," Fara interjected. "Now he has control over the tribes and may be forcing them to prepare for some sort of attack on the Cornerian Colonies. He's damaging the water and the ecosystem and taking away the Dinosaur leaders. He now has the means to force the rest of these creatures to agree to fight for him or die of thirst without leadership or guidance. What a cruel freak."

"We've got to stop this piece of work," Star agreed. He glanced back at his team then nodded. Fara acknowledged the gesture and moved out from between the Earthwalker and Cloudrunner, letting Star slip out from between them as well. Star glanced from Phoenix to O'Donnell, folding his arms across his chest. He then said, "We need that motorcycle from the GreatFox. Can either of you ride, because I don't want to leave you two here without me."

"I ride fairly well," Fara replied. "I'm a decorated test pilot and instructor. I'm licensed to drive a fair variety of vehicles, short of operating Capitol Ships."

"Good deal, think you can shimmy up the rope and fetch the bike?" McCloud asked. "Also, there is a Saurian Translator gauntlet computer on a shelf in Slippy's quarters. Can you retrieve that as well?"

"How do you want me to get the bike down the well?" Fara asked, cocking a brow. In order to answer her question, Star turned back to Tricky and spoke in a slowly drawn Saurian, attempting to ascertain how the dinosaurs were brought into this complex.

After a moment, he turned back to Fara Phoenix and told her, "There is an entrance in the jungle. I'll have to let you in from the inside but I'll set off a homing beacon which that gauntlet will be able to track. If there is more than one, bring them all. There's a knapsack in my bedroom, under my bed. It'll hold all the gear you should need. The keys to the bike are somewhere on the bridge. Ask ROB, he'll know."

The vixen tilted her head then grinned casually. "This will take some time to prepare, you know."

"I'm aware," Star said, returning he slight grin. "You move quick for a woman of Fifty-Five. Much quicker than old Peppy."

"Star!" Fara erupted, putting her hands on her hips.

"Damn," Crimson said, shaking his head. "Did you seriously go there, man?" He grinned then turned back to Phoenix, looking her over again. She was healthy, fit, well built and took incredibly good care of herself. Her physique cried '_mid twenties_' and her facial features seemed to deny McCloud's claim to her age. She had no gray fur showing. It was obvious that she'd aged well.

"Dude, are you _sure_ she's old enough to be a grandmother?" Crimson asked, tilting his head. "Provided that most people have children in their early twenties, that is."

"Heh, not _my_ father; he was over thirty when he started," Star said, suddenly shaking his head and changing the subject. "I'm sorry, Fara. I know women are sensitive about their age sometimes… but telepathy aside, you've fooled us both into thinking you were easily thirty, maybe even younger."

Fara lifted a paw to protest then immediately dropped it. "I try to block it out of my mind but there _is_ something I don't talk about, concerning my age."

As soon as the thought ran through her mind, Star sensed it and his jaw dropped. Before she could talk about it, he put his paws up. "Just go and get the gear. Crimson and I will lay low and try not to start a war down here. Just hurry so we can begin the assault. I didn't realize and I'm sorry," he exclaimed in an apologetic tone. He reached out to place a paw over Crimson's muzzle so that his friend couldn't offer any rebuttal.

Fara, instead of arguing, simply turned and headed back into the corridor from which they'd come. Once she was gone, Star released Crimson's jaw and sighed. "She really is weird about her age… she pushed the entire situation out of her mind. However, just now, when she thought back over it – even briefly – I sensed something she didn't want _anyone_ to know."

"She's a clone with super powers?" O'Donnell joked.

Star shook his head slowly and said, "No, she was killed in action during the Lylat Wars and had only just started a relationship with my father right before it happened. I think her family, as rich as they are, must have put her into cryogenic suspended animation until they could figure out what to do. Dad never knew; no one ever talked about it."

"And so," Crimson said, slowly drawing his words out. His eyes shifted over to the King Earthwalker then returned to Star. He continued, "What you're saying is, she dropped off the face of the earth and her name wasn't even spoken in the Lylat System ever again… until recently."

Star glanced down the hallway, seeing Fara, far down the corridor, beginning to scale the rope that dangled from the ceiling. She was out of earshot. He then turned back to Crimson and said, "Right. She was still listed under the military but upon being reanimated and having her mortal wound repaired with modern medical technology, the loophole basically entitled her to a Military Retirement Pension. So she technically fulfilled her twenty-year obligation and was paid for it. The credits in her account accrued interest and now she has enough money set aside that she doesn't have to touch her family's fortune unless she _really_ needs it. She has an incredible life story."

"Interesting," O'Donnell mused, thoughtfully.

Star began pacing the room, putting together all the pieces that he'd sensed about Fara up until now, including the burst of memories that ran through Fara's mind only a few moments prior. "And this is why, concerning my father's first girlfriend, some people say she existed and some people swear she never did. Either way, she was placed in cryo-stasis while the rest of Lylat presumed her to be dead. She was a test pilot and instructor up until that point. She was awakened after my parents disappeared which explains why she feels so awkward about how my father lived his life out with my mother as his wife. She heard about it all, after the fact, from history books."

Crimson almost balked. "You learned all of that from reading her mind after jogging her memory real fast?" He shook his head slowly and said, "That's amazing. You must know every little secret about me already."

Star suddenly grinned and said, "I know you have this strange habit of scratching your tummy while you take a piss in the morning."

"OH you ass!" Crimson erupted, slugging his friend in the arm. "I meant, …never mind," he grumbled.

"What, that you have a sister?" Star said, looking rather satisfied.

"Now you know, let's go look for this way out," Crimson replied flatly, changing the subject immediately.

"Is she cute?" Star asked as the two began checking the area.

"I don't want to talk about her," said Crimson, who turned to the dinosaur and asked, "How in the hell do you get out of here, you big oaf?" Star glared at Crimson for a moment then turned back to King Tricky and, in the Saurian language, asked about the approximate location in correlation to their current position.

Tricky replied and Star turned back to the hallway, motioning with his paw, "C'mon," he said. The two dashed off down the hallway, passing the rope that lead into the ceiling, where they had come in. They continued down the hall in the direction opposite of where the first four tribal leaders were being kept.

* * *

**Fara Phoenix stood in the GreatFox II** launch bay. She had taken the knapsack and three translators from the personal quarters upstairs. Now all that was left was to get the motorbike off the wall mounting. She placed her paws up on the machine, looking for some way to manipulate the hanger hooks to see if it would self lower.

Suddenly, something struck her from behind, bowling her forward. Her body collapsed to the floor, her nose brushed the flight deck. The strike was meant to render her unconscious but it didn't quite do the job. She was woozy and could feel her elbows shaking as she pushed herself back up from the ground. Her head turned a bit, glancing at a pair of red boots on the floor, inches from her snout. "…Who?"

"You and those idiot kids need to learn how not to meddle in the affairs of others!" shouted the man. He reached for her. His palm easily covered her neck, lifting her up by the scruff as if she were a kitten. As her body was hoisted upwards, her eyes were able to capture his lanky legs, scrawny arms and his average build. He was strong for being so lithe. Fara took a moment to size him up as an opponent.

Once held high enough, she saw the marmoset's face. She recognized him as a teenager in the Lylat War, as well as from the newspaper archive. He had aged a few decades but was undoubtedly the idiot who professed to be the 'self-proclaimed ruler of Venom'. He was very same 'ruler of Venom' shot down by accident at the cusp of the Aparoid Invasion. She learned that much from the history books but she couldn't pass judgment on him, either. Fara had fallen mortally wounded in the Invasion of Corneria where as he remained resilient and, for lack of a better term… _alive_.

She tried to shake off the effects of the attack so that she could fight him. She knew she could take him but she still felt numb; he'd struck her in a pressure point and it was difficult to recover for some reason. Her mind raced, trying to recover from the attack. She didn't recall learning his first name – she only knew he was related to Andross.

"You're that clown who used to fly with StarWolf," Fara managed. She suddenly arched her back and simultaneously kicked her left leg outwards. It passed harmlessly through the man's body but somehow caused him to lose his grip upon her collar. She fell to the floor, landing unceremoniously upon her tail. "What in the world?" Fara blinked, pondering the failure in physical connection.

"I'm a holographic image, you twit," said the man, shaking his head. "My Uncle wasn't the only inventor in this family," he sneered, narrowing his eyes. His fist then drew back, lunging forth to connect with Fara across the side of her muzzle. The room faded from her peripheral vision except for her immediate surroundings. She reached her left paw over her snout, cupping the bruised jaw but readied herself with her right.

He took another swing but the swift fennec ducked to the side. She unleashed a fierce swing meant to gain purchase on her opponent, but like before, her paw passed through the ape's body. His image distorted for an instant. Her overexertion caused her to stumble. She opened her stance dramatically to retain her balance.

The ape spun about, burying his elbow into her mid back to bring her to the floor once more. He drew his fist up and aimed to deliver a jab into her face but her left paw, already by her jaw, was able to rotate, catching his knuckles in her palm. To her surprise, his fists felt solid and real. Her calculating mind was quick to add the facts together.

She snatched both of his fists in her palms trying to pull or throw him but he was still too strong. He lifted his arms. Her paws clinched so as not to lose her grip around his fists. He jerked his arms up and hoisted her from the flight deck. The half-marmoset, half ape kicked his foot up, striking her in the gut. She clung to his fists so as not to go flying into the wall but the force of his foot still knocked the air out of her body.

Her muzzle parted but no sound escaped her lips. She strained to suck in air, her lungs aching as if being squeezed. Her joints ached without oxygen. Her senses were in shock; Fara Phoenix was stunned. Her eyes reflected his smirk. He took her by the throat again; the limp vixen slumped in his grasp, numb with pain. When she blinked again, she found herself flat on the floor, halfway across the flight deck.

Finally, the strange effect began to wear off. Fara shook her head, trying to clear her head, only to see the ape stalking across the deck in her direction. She gasped in a large breath of air, feeling sweet relief at the sensation. Her body felt ready and responsive again and so she scrambled to her feet, putting her paws up in a defensive stature.

He lifted his massive hands once more and she lifted her arms to ward off his attacks. His fisticuffs struck without mercy, slamming into her forearms and kicking at her shins. All she could do was block the attacks. She continued to move away, taking each bruising slug against her forearms with a grunt or groan. Once she backed herself clear across the bay, she found her back pressing up against the wall.

To her immediate left was a rectangular metal box bolted to the bulkhead. Fara crouched quickly, narrowly avoiding another punch which struck the wall above her. She then ducked to the side, causing one of his fists to slam into the box directly above her head. Glass shattered in the front of the box and a fire-hose fell to the ground. Its large metal nozzle gave off a resounding clang that echoed throughout the flight deck. The flat fabric of rope began to coil around it, spilling to the floor.

Fara scrambled to the side, purposely ensnaring her left foot around the hose and pulling it along with her. As she rolled away from her opponent to give herself space, she took part of the hose with her. Ultimately she reached down for it, turned about and stood up. She yanked on the hose, letting it slide through her hands to some extent. After a sharp tug, she pulled the nozzle out from under the pile of hosing.

With a sharp arch of her back and putting her weight into the maneuver, she swung the hose around, above her head. The metal end hit the wall nearest to her, causing the loud noise once more but she continued to swing it, strafing away from the wall as best she could. With all of her might, she jerked her body to the side, using the hose like a whip. The metal nozzle struck against the ape's left wrist, causing his fist to go flying, separating from his body. The holographic transmitter hit the floor, leaving him without one hand. The other metal transmitters which floated in the air, stayed put.

Lacking one of his four transmitters, part of his body shimmered. His arm disappeared and part of his shoulder faded away. Andross' nephew reached his right arm outwards and the transmitter levitated from the floor, flying back to meet with his holographic body. The shape of the fist reappeared. "Very clever!" he announced, drawing his fists back up into a ready stance.

Suddenly he snatched the hose slack from the ground and pulled two meters worth of slack. Fara tried swinging her end once more but he was ready this time. He lifted his arms upwards so that the nozzle passed through his torso, harmlessly. He then grabbed another end of the hose so there was a loose loop in it then hooked it around her neck. He jerked his arms up once more and yanked the vixen off her feet by the throat.

Fara dropped her end of the hose, reaching her paws to the loop around her throat, trying to pull at it. She struggled, holding the loop in her paws to take the stress off of her neck but it was still doing a good job of choking her. Her feet were lifted from the ground, swaying back and forth in the air, just inches from the deck. Her toes pointed downwards, trying to touch the deck beneath her feet. It was no use. He lifted her higher. The vixen struggled wildly, holding the loop in her paws to keep from being hanged.

Oikonny transferred the looped hose from right to left so that he held it crisscrossed in one hand; he rotated his wrist, turning her about by ninety degrees. The one-time dictator drew his free hand back, closed his fingers into an intimidating fist and grinned. Fara narrowed her eyes, struggling in the choking hold. She was frustrated by the sensation of feeling helpless. The fist lurched forward. It raced through the stale air, heading straight for her temple…

Fara suddenly found herself on the ground, the hose draped over her shoulders and four small, round holographic transmitters rested on the deck besides her. She blinked twice, reaching for her throat. Her eyes wondered down to the four transmitters lying on the ground. There were small pinchers in the side of each transmitter, used for holding an item. But their grip on the hose had been lost when they all failed to receive reception. Whatever controlled them had completely lost the transmission signal.

She picked one up to examine it, still panting from the intense combat. Each one had a series of small lights on it. The one she picked up had a dent in it from where she'd struck the object with the fire-hose nozzle. She rotated it in her fingertips, locating an activation switch. Just to be on the safe side, she flipped the switch to 'off' then proceeded to do the same to the remaining three holographic emitter orbs.

Her stomach ached and her head began to spin for a moment. She felt woozy from the sudden lack of adrenaline and simply waited for a moment for the sensation to pass. She looked back across the flight deck at the motorcycle that was resting on the wall. Fara knew she had to get back to her mission and meet up with the guys. First, however, she pocketed the small metal orbs, wondering if they would come in handy later.

* * *

**Crimson tugged on the gauze** bandage, tightening the fabric-like material that he had wound around his right paw. Star leaned in with a cutting tool, snipping the gauze for his friend, helping to tie it off. "How's it feel?" McCloud asked.

"Like I burned the hell out of my paw," O'Donnell snapped.

"Either way, you got the fuse out of that electric box," Star reminded his friend. "That was pretty impressive, Red. Now our subject lacks electricity and he's stuck in the dark. With my natural vulpine vision, I can see pretty well in the dark. Let's hope our victim doesn't have the same luxury."

O'Donnell frowned, looking over his injured paw in the dim illumination of a yellowish auxiliary track light in the wall. "Well, at least now that laser door blocking the jungle entrance is gone," he mused thoughtfully. "It's not a serious burn or anything, it just hurts. Anyhow, let's head back to the entrance and meet that chick."

"Agreed," McCloud mused thoughtfully. "Fara should be here any time, now. She and I will be your eyes, Red." The two made their way back to the jungle entrance of the complex. Moments prior, it was blocked by laser bars but now that all the main fuses were pulled, the entire subterranean base lacked power. The two sat in the concrete mouth of the entrance, watching through the trees as the last vestiges of sunlight faded from the sky.

Both boys sat in the dark, remaining quiet. Star activated the homing beacon in his gear and they continued to wait. After a few minutes, Crimson's ears flickered, followed by Star, whose mind had been wondering. The sound of the motorcycle could be heard upon approach. A moment later, Fara Phoenix brought the blue assault bike to the concrete maw that lead into the base. She looked as though she'd been roughed up.

Phoenix had a shiner just beneath her right eye. The swell extended down to the top right side of her muzzle, from where she'd been hit in the face earlier. Crimson and Star stood up, both looking surprise. McCloud furrowed his eyebrows, approaching her first. "What happened?"

"I just had a brawl with a Holographic version of our enemy," Fara explained. "He was using auto-levitating holographic emitters to simulate fists and feet. Somehow, he disappeared right before delivering a fatal blow. Anyway, I have the bike, here."

"Crimson here burned a few layers of skin from the palm of his paw," McCloud said, motioning to O'Donnell, "In his decision to cut the power to the base. He pulled out fuses so that backup power couldn't be diverted to the rest of the complex."

Fara approached Crimson, placed her paws on either side of his neck then leaned forward and delivered a pleasant, chaste kiss upon the side of his face. Star could suddenly sense the reasons behind her action but she worded her gratefulness before the telepath could remark upon it.

"Thank you," she told the half-lupine. "Pulling the power is what must have caused the holographic attack to cease. I owe you my life; I'd much rather be 'hanging' out with you guys than 'hanging' out with that Oikonny chump. I appreciate it." She placed a second kiss against the side of his muzzle then patted the side of his face with her palm. Crimson's eyes dropped to the ground, glad for the lack of light to camouflage his blush.

"If we all do our jobs right, the teamwork efforts keep us alive, right?" Crimson reached his uninjured paw upwards, sifting his fingers through the fiery locks of headfur resting between large, triangular ears. "Anyway, we got the bike now, let's find this guy and shut him down so we can all get paid."

"Agreed," Fara added with a firm nod. "Only one or two of us will fit on this bike at once. This means splitting up into groups. How do you guys want to plan out this assault?"

"I'm going back for the Tribal Leaders," Star said. "I want you guys to start securing rooms on the first wing that extends away from the subterranean part of Thorntail Hollow. I'll contact you guys and we'll close in around the main control compartment and surround this guy," McCloud explained. "That way he has no where to run when we strike."

"All right," Fara replied. "Crimson, can you drive one of these?" she asked, motioning to the bike.

"I've only driven the hover-speeders before," he admitted. Phoenix tossed the remaining translation devices over to McCloud then turned her head back to Crimson to address his comment about his lack of experience on an attack cycle.

Fara nodded and told him, "I'll teach you, c'mon and hop on, you can cover our 6-o'clock with a blaster and I'll drive." She turned to the bike, rolled it further into the complex entrance then kicked her leg over the machine, straddling it properly. Crimson pulled a blaster from his gear bag then slid onto the back end of the bike. Star gave them a nod and Fara quickly engaged the throttle.

Crimson hooked his injured paw around her waist, loosely and kept the weapon in his free paw. The bike lurched forward and Star watched them disappear into the inky void further up the corridor. The headlamp on the front of the bike faded into complete darkness and the sound faded into silence. Star began walking back towards where he'd left Tricky and the others.

* * *

A/N: _Honestly, I'll try to keep the author's notes out of the header as much as possible XD_

_The other day I got a really good suggestion in my FanFiction Forum thingy. Keep the suggestions coming, guys :) I appreciate it. _

_Again, I have chapter 3 of Reflections of Peppy completed but the edited version was lost and it needs to be edited again. No biggie, it'll be posted soon. Also, I've completed a new chapter for my Sly Cooper story and it will be uploaded soon, as well. I'm nearly finished with a new chapter for The Curse and I'm taking ideas for where to go with Similar Paths Taken. I also have something laid out for how I want to write the next chapter of Nothing Passed Tomorrow. At any rate, I found something interesting the other day... _

_My first StarFox story was written on paper in 1994. It was my first attempt at writing novel-style, trying to break away from the script style writing that I was attempting as a kid. I'd taken a writer's hiatus for a few years after that story and never actually finished it. I recently found it, about a year and a half ago, and started putting it into a typed format. Then I went back about 6 months ago and toyed with it, a little. I've got several chapters of it and was wondering... should I post it? _

_I was a kid, you know? So the storyline plot is basically something that 500 million other people did with StarFox. But I could still post the first 5 or 6 chapters if anyone wants to read it. Just let me know... I've made some changes to the story arc and dialogue so it's not a pure version of my original written draft. I changed some characters, added Krystal in, stuff like that. It's a far cry and completely different direction than my normal fan fiction work. But it's a story line that's been done a MILLION times already by other fan fiction writers... lol. In that respect, it's sort of… a… uh, …Crossover bandwagon story of doom. Hmm, maybe that's what I'll call it, if I post it._

-kitsunari


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: _Okay, so I'll make this brief. My flowery-detailed work usually comes in the story The Curse. It's the mood I'm in when I write that story that has caused that and Chapter 16 will be no exception. But I want to make one quick remark: I AM an Amateur writer. There aren't a whole lot of published writers on the Fan Fiction website, writing StarFox and Sly Cooper… I can tell you that much. Just one or two that I know of. At any rate, I'm an amateur writer; there's nothing wrong with BEING an amateur. We're all amateur writers. I'm proud of that. So, to the reviewer who left feedback for chapter 5, I'll do my best to write more flowing details in the future, all right? Sorry I had a 'dull moment' set of descriptions in my last chapter, yaw'll. Still love me?... :) _

_-_Kit

* * *

C H A P T E R _six_

**The corridor was dark** not unlike the inky void of space; a familiar home to the rusty-furred vulpine. His soft, matching jade orbs widened and his vertical pupils dilated to allow his natural night vision to take over. There was someone else in the general area that he could sense but he couldn't read their clouded mind; he couldn't pinpoint their proximity or their intent.

Without further warning, something slammed across the back of his head, rendering him into an immediate state of unconscious. Paws were thrown outwards to protect this face, instinctively, and the ground rushed up to meet him. There was no pain, only a sudden loss of sensation and equilibrium. …The dreams were beginning again.

_McCloud opened his eyes. The bubble-shaped dome of the escape pod was bathed in the soft white glow of some ethereal, esoteric incandescence. It couldn't be explained. The pure colored illumination suddenly began to dim and in the distance, the catastrophic view of Region 7 filled the windshield. The Escape pod was about to crash land on the worst part of Katina… _

_"You know, the first time I retired from StarFox," Peppy began, steadying the control stick, "I went back to the military to replace Pepper as General. And yet I just couldn't stay away from this kind of action, despite the request of my wife," Hare said dryly. "I remember when your mother and father went through some hard times, just after I left to become General. Heck, I remember helping your Grandfather tear through Lylat to rid the system of Andross' forces and now he's attacking us again." _

_"No time to have your life flash before your eyes, old timer," Star replied, "Your eight years of being General were a great run but you're not dead yet. I know you came back to the team just because Miss Vivian passed away… but I don't want you thinking about joining her just yet, Peppy." _

_Hare gave a quick, side-long glance at the boy then shrugged. "I suppose you're right. Make sure your seat belt is secure, it's going to be turbulent," Peppy said, offering a grim chuckle in an attempt to look bold in the face of possible death. _

_The war-torn landscape stretched for two full sectors. It's where Andross' foot soldiers had attacked two months prior. The sixteen-year-old shuttered, attempting to tear his gaze from the sight. Twisted building wreckage, burning spires and devastation for miles; it was depressing and yet commanded attention inspiring nothing less than complete awe. _

_Peppy wrestled furiously with the flight yoke but the angle of descent was too steep and the power of the escape craft was unable to break the nosedive. McCloud could feel the sensation of blood running to his head. The 'red-out' was something pilots had to know how to handle. Peppy was an experienced vet and yet Star couldn't understand how the rabbit could have allowed this tiny vessel to become locked under such a course. _

_Suddenly, it all became clear. Two green bolts of plasmatic energy lanced passed the craft, coming into view of the cockpit canopy. McCloud's heart began to pound. Peppy knew it all along; they were being pursued and he didn't want the enemy to catch up with the craft. Why couldn't Star sense the fighter behind them? _

_He could only assume that it was unmanned. The view of the world spiraled about in the windshield. With no gravity defusing equipment on an escape pod the centrifugal force was powerful, drawing Star against the bulkhead. "Why in the hell aren't you buckled in?" Peppy shouted over his shoulder. _

_Region 7 became larger in the windshield and Star suddenly felt weightless as the barrel roll was reversed. Gravity returned and the vulpine dropped to his knees, facing a passenger seat behind the cockpit. Scurrying up into the chair, McCloud snatched the seatbelt harness and pulled it over his head, down over his chest and quickly pushed the receiving section against the buckle. _

_The satisfying snap of security was accompanied by the harsh shutter of the escape vessel. "Brace for impact!" Peppy warned. The Port-side stabilizer clipped the remains of a building's burnt out frame, slicing through an iron girder. The metallic lintel managed to disjoint the avionics strut and the controls immediately seized. However, their pursuer slammed through a wall of bricks on the same building skeleton. The tailing opponent went into a sudden tailspin, coming completely apart. _

_"Brace for impact, Star!" Peppy shouted again, only seconds before the metal pod careened into the concrete wall of another building on its diagonal descent into Katina. The canopy cracked but maintained its pressure seal. However, the bottom side of the cockpit was smashed, forcing the computer controls upwards. The flight stick was pushed upwards, skewering the backrest of the pilot seat, just beneath Peppy's right arm. _

_Within the length of a simple gasp, the entire scene had played out to its conclusion with a sudden silence to follow. Star found himself in the rear passenger seat. Once his state of disorientation faded, he unbuckled his seatbelt and slipped away from the chair. Gravity wrestled him to the ceiling without any further warning. _

_The injured, teenage kit began to crawl along the top of the inverse escape pod, towards the front of the escape pod. Relief was emanating from Peppy who seemed to be awake. Upon further inspection, McCloud learned that the flight stick was only centimeters from impaling the older pilot, resting against his hip, beneath his right arm. Peppy did not escape completely unscathed, however. _

_The fur over Mr. Hare's face was matted with blood that came from various cuts and minor lacerations over his forehead. Star firmly placed his paws against the hare's shoulders, once he felt confident that the man had no joint or bone injuries. The young McCloud told Peppy, "Unbuckle yourself and put your feet up, "General", I'll hold your shoulders in place and you can roll off my paws and land on your feet; we're upside down." _

_"I don't know about all that gymnastics stuff," Peppy muttered, lifting, or rather dropping a paw down to his face to wipe blood and sweat away from his eyes. "But help lower me to the top slowly and we'll be in good shape." _

_Two loud metallic popping sounds filled their ears in immediate succession. Bullets lanced in through the side of the hull. One tore through the pilot chair from a side angle and passed harmlessly through the other end of the backrest; the other bullet crossed through the passenger seat McCloud sat in earlier. Star had no time to worry about what could have happened; he reached down and mashed in on Peppy's seatbelt release mechanism. _

_The rabbit lurched forward and Star embraced the older man, helping to guide his drop safely to the escape pod's ceiling. Another gunshot ripped through the cockpit glass, piercing the backrest of the now-empty seat then silence returned. The two lay there, remaining absolutely still. _

_One final shot rang out and it tore through the teenager's shirt, passed through the fur between his elbow and ribcage then continued harmlessly into the facing bulkhead. Star gasped so sharply that he winded himself, wheezing for air. The grazing bullet did little more than break the first layer of skin, leaving only the sting of something as harmless as a paper cut. Another moment of silence followed and Star regained his breath. _

_"Do you think mom and dad defeated Andross by now?" the young fox asked. _

_Peppy began to crawl along the ceiling of the pod on his elbows like the old war vet that he was The retired war General glanced over at the vulpine. He said, "Let's worry about our own safety first. I can't believe I clipped that metal beam. I must have misjudged the wingspan by just a little bit. I'm losing my touch with old age," then added, "Keep your head down and follow me. We'll get out of this then we'll find out how your parents are doing." _

_"They're shooting out there," replied Star. _

_"Follow me. Once we're outside, I want you to trust your instincts to survive. Let's go," Peppy said, a tone of command was in his voice. _

_"And if my instincts say to stay where it's safe?" Star asked. _

_"If this craft stays quiet, the attackers will assume we're dead or injured," Peppy explained. "Then they'll come in here to loot this thing for parts. We have to escape before they come and shoot us. Right now, they're probably popping off rounds from a quarter miles. Let's go before it's too late. C'mon, McCloud." _

_Something wet splashed across his face… He didn't exactly remember that happening… Again, something splashed across his face, causing Star to stop and blink; eyes wide, he turned to Peppy, blinking repeatedly in confusion… _

Star's eyes peeled open and his paws lifted to cover his face. Fara Phoenix and Crimson O'Donnell knelt over his body with Tricky standing beyond them. McCloud blinked rapidly, glancing from Crimson to Fara. Both of them wanted answers but all he could remember was being rendered unconscious. When he attempted to sit up, however, he felt the bruise against the back of his head, just above his neck. He was attacked and, furthermore, the third presence, the cloudy one, was no longer in the area.

"He must have hit me while making his escape," Star grumbled. "I don't sense him in the general area. What's the status?"

"He's gone," said Red. "Fara radioed over to that ROB fellow who is tracking the idiot with the GreatFox Scanners. He's in a medium sized craft, heading for Venom. That damn planet is in the middle of a Civil War, right now. It's a dangerous place to go if you're thinking about following that scumbag."

"We were commissioned to put this guy out of business for good," McCloud reminded, sitting up slowly so as not to dizzy himself. "I thought you were the one who wanted to bag and tag this guy, no matter what."

Phoenix butted into the conversation. "Some people actually need help, there," Fara muttered softly. "Those people are a struggling group. There is nothing 'Civil' about their current state of war and if we're careful, we can chase this guy down, take him out and leave Venom unscathed… and unnoticed."

"You're quite the optimistic one, aren't you?" Star chided, wiping his face with the back of his paws. It was just a dream during his short state of unconsciousness. He was rather glad the dream was never finished. He couldn't stand the ending. Even though he and Peppy actually survived the incident, the old retired General and Star had to struggle to survive that downtrodden part of town. Between looters and Venom squads, the two nearly lost their lives trying to leave the area.

"Peppy and I were struggling to survive the Blue Sector of Katina," McCloud recalled aloud.

"Blue Sector has been secured for a long time," O'Donnell replied. "That was _years_ ago, man. Back when the sectors still had numerical names."

"Peppy…Hare?" asked Fara. "Wasn't he the successor to General Pepper for a few years?"

Star nodded slowly then explained, "Yeah, when he re-retired from the military, he went back to the GreatFox to live out his life with the only true family he knew. It's all he could do after Miss Vivian Hare died from illness."

"And McCloud, here, lived with him until _he_ passed from age," Crimson added sullenly. "Let's get out of this place; do you think we can get the GreatFox to fly again?"

"Without a power core," Star mused thoughtfully, "She'll never fly again."

"Then let's get one," Fara replied quickly, "My family owns the transportation authority and a cargo line; we'll take a core from one of the freighters that are out of service," she told them. "Leave it to me, I'll secure one."

"Good enough for me," said Red. "She comes in pretty handy, huh?"

"Are you surprised a woman can compliment your team?" Fara chided playfully, ribbing Crimson in his shoulder with her fist. Red raised a brow then grinned a bit.

"Yeah, that's exactly what it is," he replied with a half-way sarcastic chuckle. "I know that some girls can kick ass. I'm just surprised that you'd actually take a power core from someone else and donate it to us for the GreatFox."

"Well," Fara concluded with a shrug, "None of those transports are armed well enough to use in _place_ of GreatFox itself. That dilapidated cruiser is our only choice right now. Let's try and see if we can use it. Is there a hull breach on it?"

McCloud shrugged and then, in a suggesting voice, said, "Nothing a few bolts and a sheet of bulkhead from an out-of-service cruiser can't repair."

"Well," Fara said, tapping a well manicured nail to her lower lip, "I suppose; since we'll be taking the power core already, it shouldn't be so bad to take a sheet or two of siding plates. The poor GreatFox will look more like the Patchwork-Fox when we're done."

Wolf's son grinned inwardly. "That half-way sounds like a decent name for a ship," he said. "But if you can manage it, I say we score some parts and get the GreatFox ready to fly."

"This is going to cost a fortune," McCloud muttered, shaking his head. "But Fara's idea will save us a lot of money. But then we'll be indebted to her."

"You can always make me part of your team," Phoenix jested with a partial grin tugging at the corner of her muzzle. "I've not had this much fun in quite some time. To be rather honest, I don't have much for myself as I _should_ be in my fifties by now," she told them. "Here I am, still a young lady… here I am, forced to live out my generation by reading about it in history books. I'm not eligible to return to the military because of a loophole concerning identity, birth date and, of course, the fact that I'm technically too old to be allowed back in at my rank. Some _Generals_ are in their fifties. I was turned down and left at Major with a retirement package pay plan. It's just a bunch of loopholes. So, what do you guys think?"

"We'll think about it," McCloud said. "Just give us time to talk it over, weigh our options and get to know you so we can see how the team feels with the new chemistry."

"Fair enough," Fara replied. "We all have to see if it 'fits' before we go about calling ourselves a future family and I respect that," she told them. Then she said, "I'll never get this chance to do this to Fox, ever again, so I'll settle for the next best thing…" The fennec vixen suddenly placed her paws on either side of his muzzle. She then leaned in and placed her lips against his, brushing her soft, plush mouth against his own, meshing their lips together in a kiss that shocked and surprised both boys. Star melted into it, deciding not to fight it. It wasn't like she was old, having been in suspended animation for so long.

Crimson raised his brows, watching the display of silly feminine 'mushy stuff' as he called such things. Really, he was just jealous that it wasn't him. Either way, he was happy for his friend to a degree and just folded his arms while Fara brought the twenty-two year old McCloud to a scarlet-cheeked blush.

When the kiss didn't stop right away, O'Donnell simply blinked. Now it was getting passionate and he looked rather surprised. "C'mon, you two. Get a room, geeze." The kiss, however, continued and Fara's eyes were shut with an expression of bliss painted upon her features. Another moment passed and Fara finally placed her paws against Star's chest and gave a gentle push to break the joining. It left McCloud breathless. She reached her right paw to his muzzle and ran her thumb over his lips to dry them.

"That won't happen again; but it's as close as I would ever get to kissing Fox," she explained. I'm sorry you lost your father. We didn't date very long, but just the same, he was a great guy – so are you."

"Was I any good, at least?" Star asked once his breath returned. Fara gave a wry grin and nodded in reply. She would have vocalized the answer to his question but that might have given him an ego. She just simply left it at the nod. After that, she turned back to Crimson and hooked a thumb back into the jungle.

"Let's get going; there's no use giving this guy too much time to get himself ready again," she told them both. "C'mon." With that, she sauntered back towards the Blue assault cycle, with Crimson to follow. Star just stood there for a moment and Tricky turned to face the vulpine, waggling his scaly brows.

"What?" ssked the fox. "Trust me, I'd have sensed her intentions if she really wanted to be with me. You're just being silly."

Tricky grinned and said, "She knows that Fox is a married man. No girl kisses someone like _that_ and says they were thinking about someone else. She just wanted an excuse to kiss _you_."

"I'm really sure that's the case," McCloud replied in a dry tone. "Besides, I still have a sour-gone relationship to repair with Violet Lombardi."

"And now you have a love triangle, hah-hah!" Tricky announced, turning to walk off in the direction of the departing Fara and Crimson. Star just stood there for a moment, dumbfounded, before he raced off to catch up with the group.

* * *

**Tricky finagled his way into going back to GreatFox** with Star. He hadn't done much to prove his worth but being as sentimental as Star was, the fact that Tricky knew Fox McCloud meant something to the boy. An hour passed and McCloud found himself in the shower, behind a translucent fiberglass door. 

Tricky was sprawled out on the bathroom tiles, speaking through the translator strapped to the side of his neck. "It's difficult," McCloud muttered from beyond the shower stall door. "If Violet does join the team, there would be female tension. It wouldn't be good for the team if Violet didn't trust Fara or something."

"But does your team need to be four members in size?" Tricky asked, lazily laying his head on the tile floor like an overgrown dog. "Fara seemed like a capable girl and I think she's attracted to you."

Star shook his head, facing the faucet control panel which was covered with condensation. A blurry illumination of the temperature reading was barely legible through the foggy moisture. "I think Fara, like most women, was doing something to placate herself while successfully making me feel awkward to better seat herself in this situation. It was her way of trying to charm me into letting her stay but now I'm wondering about the team's stability if we have two women."

"Like I said," Tricky replied, repeating, "Just have Fara and don't get this other girl."

"Violet is an incredible pilot and an extraordinary mechanic," McCloud explained, taking a fur-shampoo dispenser from the wall shelf and toying with it in the palm of his paw, idly. "It's just that I have a history with Violet. Plus, having Fara on board _without_ Violet would place strain on a relationship that I want to resume having."

"Do what you got to do, Star," said Tricky.

"I hate that name," McCloud groused. "Just… don't call me that, please?"

"Sure, if that's what you want," replied the dino. "I wish I could fly an Arwing," he added, changing the subject.

"For some reason, I'd find that exceptionally amusing." Star leaned back against the tiles of the shower stall then slid down to the flooring, curling his wet tail around his waist. The sodden brush was draped over his lap and the pilot shut his eyes with a sigh. "I enjoyed that kiss; you'd better not tell her that. I think I still love Violet and now this is becoming drama that I don't need. And as far as a team leader goes, I can't play favorites… also, if they both died on a mission, I'd feel really bad."

"Your dad flew with your mom, how did he handle his emotions?" asked the King Earthwalker.

Star paused for a moment then said, "From what I understand, there was occasionally drama between them when she wanted to tackle something dangerous and he would get really worried or vice versa."

"I'm surprised two lady foxes are so interested in you," said Tricky, adding, "Most women prefer a man who's confident in himself without being egotistical; you, on the other hand, are a nervous wreck about two girls."

"You know, it's awkward that you're in here," Star shot back, quickly. "And for your information, Violet isn't a vixen. How in the hell did you get in here, anyhow?"

Tricky smirked. "That ROB guy made a modification to my translator band that has some sort of proximity thing built in, so the doors slide open when I walk by them."

The vulpine began to rotate the fur-shampoo bottle in his paw again. "I bet that's annoying; you walk down the hall and every door opens and shuts again as you walk by it," Star mused with a shrug.

"It needs some tweaking," said Tricky "And you'll have to lock your door if you don't want it to open and shut in the middle of the night when I walk through."

This time, it was Star's turn to smirk. "Which begs the question: Am I going to let you stay when we try to take the GreatFox off this planet," he asked.

"I would hope so," the eager dinosaur said, rebutting, "While it's true I'd need some semblance of a 'sand box' for the call of nature, I could be a valuable team mate. Besides, Sauria is cool and all, but I want to see the galaxy; that would be really neat!"

"Good goddess," muttered the fox, "I'd not even thought of that; you'd be like a talking pet in all those cliché cartoon sitcoms to the public eye but for us, behind the scene, we'd need to have a huge litter box that would need constant changing… like we have money or something."

"Well, you're talking about including a rich girl to the roster, right?" the monarch dinosaur asked, lifting his head slightly to glance over at the frosted fiberglass. He quickly noted that the lumpy form of the fox was missing and assumed that Star was now sitting on the floor, as well. "Doesn't Miss Phoenix have money?"

McCloud shrugged. "It's not that easy and if you wanted to have a litter box on this ship, you'd have to make her the one to want to pay for that kind of expense."

Tricky chuckled playfully, "I _knew_ you were going to have her join the StarFox team. Now you're even leaving some measure of decision making in her hands."

"Paws," Star chidingly corrected. "And there are no guarantees that Fara Phoenix will be apart of this outfit. It's still creepy that you're in here talking to me while I'm in the shower."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah; you're glad for the company and conversation. You have a lot to get off your chest, even if you don't realize it," Tricky said, rising to his feet. "When are we going to get to fight bad guys?"

"Are you kidding?" Star muttered. "We've not even got this dump off the ground, yet. Fara and Crimson are out there in town, taking care of the finer details; I mean, you know, did you expect miracles?"

"Aren't they supposed to be flying your two fighters back from that part of town?" Tricky asked.

"We don't _have_ two fighters out there," Star corrected. "We arrived on public transportation and, if we can't get this old beast off the ground, we'll be _leaving_ on public transportation, empty handed."

"What's your plan for going after the ape guy?" Tricky asked.

"You're sure he's an ape?" inquired Star, negating the need to have a reply for Tricky's own question.

"Kinda lanky, but definitely an ape," said Tricky. "How are you going to fight him in space combat without a fighter?"

Star finally began to apply the fur-cleanser to his tail, massaging it in then said, "We have _one_ fighter but it needs some work. Also, this guy's wake trail suggests that he's gone to Venom which is in the midst of a huge Civil War. He'll have absolutely no army to help him, leaving him and maybe a sympathetic supporter or two to aid him. We'll track him down and drag him back to Corneria or Katina, kicking and screaming. Then we'll collect our bounty and invest into the team's expenses."

Tricky turned about, careful not to rip the sink off the nearby wall with his tail. "The whole idea of running a business goes beyond me; I run political circles between sovereign clans of Dinosaur breeds who each have a different idea of how their tribe should run."

"Which is a good reason why you should stay on Sauria," said McCloud. "You have a responsibility to the duty of your work as ruler, right?"

"Dinosaur's don't breed by the decade like Cornerians," Tricky explained. "The Aparoid invasion wiped out a great amount of our kind and we're anywhere but close to restocking our numbers. A ruler of a handful isn't a ruler at all. A gang leader at best, I don't have enough dinosaurs on Sauria to feel like I'm anything but a mediator between the acting tribe leaders of each race on this planet. And none of them have enough tribesmen to do anything more than gossip."

The dinosaur's expression changed slightly although Star couldn't see it through the frosted plastic-style door of the shower stall. "Furthermore," continued Tricky, "Anything I could learn from the cosmos would be considered worldly knowledge to help better run my people when I return from my hiatus. Things won't change if I embark on a great adventure with StarFox for a year or two. My culture doesn't change year to year or evolve with a trend; we're dinosaurs!"

"I feel like I should offer some witty banter in reply to that but… I've got nothing," Star confessed before adding, "Can't you go and like, explore the ship or something? This is my quiet time to sit and contemplate what I'm going to do about Fara, Violet and how we're going to make our next move, if we get this ship airborne."

"Fine, fine," Tricky grumbled, shaking his head and turning for the door. "Be a sourpuss. Don't think I'm some inferior, incapable moron. I _am_ a sentient being, you know! And as far as your feelings about this Violet chick… I saw your face when Fara kissed you; you might not realize it yet, but you're _over_ Violet. Sorry I had to be the one to tell you!" With that said, the lumbering triceratops-offshoot began to waddle out of the small doorway, leading into the dimly illuminated quarters that Star had made his room once more.

McCloud could sense that the dinosaur's intent was a good-hearted one but the fact remained: There was no need for a dinosaur member of the team. It would become one more mouth to feed and Tricky didn't seem the type to offer any sort of imperative skills to the table, beyond one more opinion for any situation. At least Fara was a war vet and flight instructor. Violet was an intense, aggressive and intelligent pilot with an insanely incredible ability to fix mechanical parts.

"Dammit," McCloud groused to the silence. "Why does decision making have to be so hard? Why can't the answers be easy and clear cut? I thought using common sense and my telepathy would make every choice obvious. How did my father do this, day in and day out?"

* * *

**Fara and** **Crimson stood** in the salvage yard. A hulking freighter filled up the back corner of the property but they were trespassing as it was after-hours for the business that ran this operation from a trailer at the front of the lot. It was easy to access the yard and there were no sentry droids in operation, despite the warnings on the signs that lined the front fence. Simultaneously, there were other people milling through the scrap yard, occasionally looking for something that had a part worth stealing. 

Some of the rabble wondering through the area seemed like bad news. Two Shepards from Corneria were stalking through the dirt rows with a triage of Lightfoot punk outcasts.

It wasn't long before the group of five made their way to Crimson and Fara's location. "You know there's an after-hours toll," said one of the canines. "And you two make such a nice couple that I'll let you live if you pay up."

"We're not a couple," Fara explained, placing a paw on her hip. Her other paw slipped into her pocket, where her stunner was located. "But I don't hold it against you; after all, I came to the same conclusion about you and your boyfriend here," she said, pointing from one canine to the other, both covered in leather vests with studded gauntlets and shoulder pads.

The humidity made it too hot for anything heavier than vests, where most goons stalked about in trench coats or weighty vinyl jackets. One of the Canine Shepard dogs fluffed his collar with a flick of his paws, approaching Phoenix and O'Donnell. The five goons encircled the fennec and half-breed wolf, but Crimson and Fara remained calm and relaxed.

One of the canines asked, "So, are you two going to pay us something or are we just going to take your clothes, wallet, credits and whatever else you two have on you?"

"Is it me or are half the colonists here simply assholes?" Crimson's question seemed to spark the ire of the present group. "I mean, I'm just curious; there are a lot of trashy people hiding out on Sauria. I heard it was a great place when first colonized but now there are a lot of scumbags in these parts."

"Gee; Red was it?" Fara asked. Crimson nodded then she continued, saying, "Well, all I can say, Mister O'Donnell, is that you and I have no choice but to defend ourselves if we were to suddenly feel threatened. Are you feeling threatened, Mr. O'Donnell?"

Crimson sort of liked how this lady's mind worked. "Why, Miss Phoenix, I'm _almost_ feeling threatened. Tell you what, I'll protect you and you can protect me. Isn't that a nice compromise?"

"Why, I do believe that you have yourself a deal," said Fara, wrapping her fingers around the stunner in her pocket. "But what about this toll? Do _you_ have any money to spare?"

"You know what? I have over five thousand credits in my left front pocket," boasted the half-breed wolf-fox. The fiery haired young man patted his pants pocket, even though he'd left nearly all of the team's money with Star, back on the GreatFox II. "But I think it's all spoken for, already. Some steak dinners for the crew tonight, some nice supplies, a pimp cane decked out with a gold handle; I don't think we'll have enough left over for their toll."

"Oh, you're bad," she said.

"Well, as it just so happens," said one of the gang members in charge, "The toll happens to be just over Five Thousand Credits. I think you should have just enough in your pocket, so I suggest you hand over the whole amount."

Crimson flirted a random number over the amount he knew they had back at GreatFox just to tease these punks. "The entire five thousand nine hundred eighty-seven credits?" At nearly six thousand credits, each of these thugs already began to realize that it would be over twelve hundred, split five ways. Fara could almost swear that they were drooling.

"Gee, I guess you're right," she said, adding, "It sounds like every dollar of pocket money you have on you… is already spoken for." She then turned to face the lead-acting canine and told him, "I'm sorry, sir. We don't have a single dime to spare. We already have future plans to spend it on frivolous things like gold-studded high-heel shoes for myself and name-brand lip gloss. Just give us a tab and we'll mail you a few credits in the near future; or, if you'd like to give us your mailing address, we'll send you a check next month. How's that sound?"

"All right," said one of the canines. "Let's show these two exactly how it feels to pick teeth out of their _feces_ after eating a couple of knuckle sandwiches."

"Dude," Crimson ran a paw back through those stark ruby locks of his hair. "That was beyond lame," Said the pilot, shaking his head with a sigh. "Now I think _you_ guys owe _us_ a toll for ruining my day with such lame dialogue. I'm serious, I really feel offended for having to have listened to you say something so completely stupid to me, just now. I want five credits, c'mon. Hand it over, I'm really insulted by your lack of intelligence or wit. Show me the money."

"Excuse me?" the other canine snapped, drawing his paws back to reveal brass knuckles which covered those lengthy furry digits. "It's about time you two paid up, so we're just gonna have to beat it out of ya's!" He drew his fist back then pivoted about to face Fara, throwing his fist forward.

With extensive military training, she drew her paw from her pocket, using her other paw to catch the attacker's wrist. She buried the stunner, which was drawn free of her pocket, directly into the man's chest while pushing her right boot between his feet. She then shoved him forward, using the stunner. With her heel planted tightly behind his feet, he spilled backwards, collapsing to the ground, gasping for air.

Fara then pivoted about, performing a well executed roundhouse kick. Crimson simultaneously dropped to the ground, implementing a leg sweep. One of the Lightfoot-punks fell to the ground while Fara's kick connected with the other Sheppard, easily dislodging his jaw.

Phoenix leaned over, removed the brass knuckles and brandished it in a teasing manner. "You were going to use these? Seriously? Brass knuckles… are you for real?" She turned about then pitched the metal object clear over the fence. "Those things are really dumb, guys." Realizing she had the attention of everyone, she turned back to them and held her paws outwards. "Why are you idiots even here? Don't you people have anything better to do than to hang out in a junkyard?"

"Screw off, lady," said one of the canines. He sat up, rubbing the side of his jaw then added, "I don't see your name on the sign out front, so get off our case."

Fara gawked in disbelief. She turned to Crimson then back to the Sheppard on the ground. "What do you _mean_ you don't see my name on the sign out front? You don't even _know_ my name, you moron." She pushed her paw into his headfur and closed her fingers tightly, clinging to his hair. "If any of you even move, I'll snap this guys neck in five places before you can blink, so the rest of you stay put." She pulled the dog's hair, forcing him to get up. She led him over to the fence and pushed his face against the metal links. "Whose name is on this property?"

"Nghh; ow, dammit!"

"Whose name?" she asked again. She placed the thumb claw of her free paw against the back of his neck then trailed it down to his left shoulder. She pushed her thumb down into the crook of his neck where it met his shoulder, applying intense force to a pressure point located there. He screeched in pain. She asked again. "Whose name is on this property?"

"F-F-Phoenix!" he cried.

"Oh yeah?" she asked. "Is that so?" She released her grip on his hair then withdrew her license and pushed it in front of his nose. "And now, since I know you can read, I want you to tell your friends what my name is."

The Sheppard squinted his eyes, reading the name from her identification card. He then cleared his throat and shouted, "Fara Phoenix!"

The other canine stood up and dusted himself off. "If she really is related to that family, then she's a billionaire! No one with that much money would be walking around in the company's junk heap!"

The dapple brown and black Sheppard backed away from her slowly. "But what if she is? You know those rich families – they always have that 'wayward daughter' who acts crazy just because she's a rich bitch." He continued to back away from Fara. "I say we kick the crap out of these two and take their money… all of it. If she _is_ worth billions, we'll hold her tail for ransom."

Immediately, two Light-Foot lizards grabbed Crimson by either arm. The other Canine pivoted on his heel then buried his fist in O'Donnell's stomach. He doubled over with a soft grunt.

Fara shook her head. "I wouldn't do that to him, if I were you guys… He's the son of Wolf O'Donnell. Know the name?"

One of the lizards forced his scaly hand into Crimson's pants pocket and pulled out a wallet. He opened the vinyl flap and said, "This punk's name is Crimson O'Donnell! I heard that Wolf guy runs the Sargasso racketeering lanes. He's probably loaded!" The lizard put his other scaly hand into Crimson's other pocket. He pulled out a metallic object. "No money, but he _does_ have _this_!" He waved a medium-powered blaster in the air then pointed it at Fara and approached her slowly. "Maybe _you_ have the money on you. Hand it over, sister. Do it, or we'll kill your boyfriend."

Crimson stood up, still held by the other two Light Foot lizards. "I told you clowns earlier, we're _not_ dating."

"Oh yeah?" said the Sheppard. He approached his reptilian friend and took the blaster then returned to Fara, placing the barrel against her head. "So you don't care if we run a train on her?"

Crimson jerked his forearms away from the two lizards on either side of him. He balled his paws into fists and narrowed his eyes. "Just because I'm not dating her doesn't mean I won't throw down on you guys for her. You guys wanna rumble again? Put the gun down and fight like real men."

"Shut up kid," said the canine with the gun. He put his free paw on Fara's neck then pointed the weapon back at Crimson. "Or I'll plug you full of holes and you won't get to watch all the fun we're about to have."

Fara, standing besides the Sheppard with his paw on her neck, placed her left foot in front of his right. She then brought her left paw up and snatched the slide on the blaster, forcing it back so that it could not fire. She reached across with her right paw and forced it into another pressure point beneath his arm so that he retracted his grip from her neck. As soon as he was off balance, she forced her left shoulder into his right rib. He took a step forward in an attempt to get away from her and locked his ankle with her left boot.

Fara shifted on her left heel, came about and buried her right knee in his gut then shouldered the dazed brute hard. She forced the blaster from his paw, knocked him onto his back then pivoted. She locked her ankles on either side of his neck, legs crossed. "Don't move; if I shift my weight, I'll break your neck. You'd better hope I've got good balance, standing like this." She pointed the weapon at the closest reptile. "On the ground, now." The Light Foot slowly got down on his stomach, lying in the dirt. Fara smirked then said, "I'll tell you what, guys. Let's play a little game… Now, I'm a part-time instructor for a women's defense course… and I'm willing to wager that I could beat all five of you guys in a fight… at the same time. Now, if I'm right, you guys have to carry parts all the way from here to Thorntail Hollow. If I'm wrong, you guys can try and take every last credit I have. No guns, Crimson will be the referee."

O'Donnell blinked in confusion. Fara tossed him the blaster and he caught it in his right paw. The lupine backed away from everyone, glaring at the fennec. "Are you crazy, woman? These guys are going to manhandle you. A self-defense class teaches you how to protect yourself from a drunk in a dark ally. This is different! I can't let you go around trying to get yourself hurt."

Fara grinned. "You were right about what you said, earlier… I was wrong: You're not like your father." She walked forward, between the other five men. "Stay out of this, O'Donnell. I can't let you go around trying to get yourself hurt," she told him, repeating his words back to him.

The Sheppard gave a tug at his jacket, straightening it out. "I saw this broad's license. She's over fifty. That proves she has money…" His attention returned to Fara. He cracked his knuckles then grinned. "It must'a been one hell of an expensive face lift, to look like you do… it makes me feel less guilty about undoing everything the plastic surgeon did, because you can just pay to have it fixed all over again.

"Well, aren't _you_ considerate," she replied. "I saw your moves a moment ago. Listen, Crimson, you have a sloppy street fighting technique. Keep your distance, young man – I mean it. You know what to do with that gun if things get out of control." She glared at him, telegraphing her meaning.

He checked the magazine then blinked. "You did that on purpose, Phoenix?" He noted that the power cell had evaporated. "Did you vent it?"

"Did you want it used against you?" she retorted. "What's done is done. You're good for one," she said, referring to the fact that he only had enough energy remaining in the cell for one shot. "If you want to know how to do that, I'll teach you later."

"You just ruined our chances of…"

She interrupted him, "…Of getting your tail handed to you, now be quiet O'Donnell." She lifted both of her paws then gestured to the surrounding five men. "Don't keep a girl waiting."

"Get her!" shouted the scruffier canine. Both dogs and all three reptiles made a dash towards Fara at the same time. Crimson lowered his eyes to the ground, unable to watch her get creamed. He only had enough power in the blaster for one more shot and he needed to save it for an emergency. Normally one to prepare for any situation, he found himself frustrated beyond measure with a nearly empty weapon in his paws.

He clinched his fingers tight and turned away in anger. He knew if anything happened to Phoenix, Star would be upset. He also knew he couldn't let a new teammate get herself injured for the sake of the squadron. He looked down at the weapon in his paws and psyched himself up for throwing punches, just in case. He drew in a deep breath, lifted the gun then turned back around, "All right, back up off the vix…" he froze, wide eyed.

All three Light Foot lizards lay sprawled out across the dirt. One of them twitched involuntarily. The two canines were sitting on the ground with black eyes and bloody noses. Phoenix stood in the midst of all five men, rubbing her right forearm. "Dammit, that's going to leave a bruise."

O'Donnell blinked rapidly and approached her. "You leveled five people in half a minute and walked away with only a _single_ bruise?" His incredulous expression brought a grin to her muzzle.

"No, the bruise on my forearm is from my spar with the holographic ape; these guys were pushovers." She snatched the weapon from Crimson then took aim at the gate on the far fence. She paused, gazing down the sights, then fired the last round. At the far end, the metal lock on the main gate flew into the air. It landed in the dirt and the large metal gate swung open. She handed the blaster back to Crimson then turned to the five men on the ground. "I like honest, hard working men. So after you boys carry the parts I need back to Thorntail Hollow, I'll give each of you one hundred credits. Now get up and follow me. I want to break orbit before midnight."

* * *

**Two chartered tugboats, owned by Phoenix Enterprises, guided the GreatFox dreadnaught **away from Sauria. It coasted into the Area6 service outpost. The station consisted of the seediest trash in the general area from Venom to Macbeth and even as far reaching as Zoness. The place was a dump but touted that which was arguably the best mechanic crew in Lylat. 

These engineering geniuses had seen it all: every class of ship and fighter, every type of part, legal or otherwise. They had seen and repaired the most combat-torn ships and jerry-rigged the most patchwork ships with the most illegally modified of parts. It was here that StarFox would have their main engine core repaired properly. It was also here that they would try to obtain information. This station was the only maintenance center between Sauria and Venom, making it an obvious pit stop for Andross' nephew. Alternatively, at the very least, this base would be a pit stop for the pilot that transported the ape.

The tugboats towed the GreatFox into port. It came to rest snug against the docking claps – the station crew secured the moorings. The ship came to rest, anchored into place and an accordion-like viaduct extended to the emergency hatch in the side of the conference room just behind the GreatFox Command Deck. Once the pressure seal was in place and the de-tox chamber signaled to be ready, the team was given the approval to board the station.

Fara and Star opened the hatch with brute strength, turning the metallic wheel lock then shoving the ovular hatch open. The strange smelling air permeated the conference room and bridge almost immediately. The de-tox hallway was used to ensure that certain viruses or parasitic bacteria wouldn't reach the station's interior.

Crimson stepped through the oval-shaped hatch with Fara and Star to follow. They met a boarding host at the end of the conduit and arranged for a team of mechanics to begin immediate work on the engine core. They ordered the necessary parts then filled out a page of paperwork on a computerized palm-sized object. From there, Star asked the gentleman where they could find out information on random individuals in this station.

The reptilian gentleman offered a pleasant smile, hooked a thumb behind himself, and motioned to the promenade. "The Helix has all the information you'd ever want if you ask the right questions to the right people. Just walk the esplanade and then visit The Helix."

"Do they have drinks there?" Crimson asked.

"They… have a bar, yes," replied the reptile with a slight chuckle. "Your entire party is required to be at least twenty-one to enter. Your ship _will_ be ready in less than twenty-four hours or your mechanical fee is reduced by one third. Have a pleasant stay on the Area6 Service Station."

Fara and McCloud took the lead with Crimson O'Donnell walking almost directly behind them. "I'm glad you were able to convince Tricky to stay on board," said the half-breed wolf to his friend. "He would draw way too much attention in a seedy little rundown shithole like this. Can you even fathom the amount of contraband that comes through this station every week?"

"I would rather not think about it," Star replied with a shrug. "If you don't look like you belong in a place like this, you attract even _more_ attention."

Fara nodded in agreement. "He's right, unfortunately. Just the thought of how pathetic this place is gives me the shivers. I can't possibly look like I belong here; this place needs to be condemned."

"No argument here," Crimson replied as the group left Hallway 'C', stepping out into the massive centralized area that resembled the square of a rundown shopping mall. The dilapidated atmosphere hinted to the kind of people that might frequent a location such as this. A large neon sign on the other side of the promenade beckoned for attention, advertising itself as The Helix and immediately causing Star to frown.

"It's a strip club," muttered the fox to Crimson and Fara.

"What? How do you know for sure?" Phoenix asked.

Star seemed to feel awkward from whatever he was sensing all the way across the hall. "The natural mental defenses of an inebriate crowd clearly enunciate their every thought while in the presence of nude females."

Crimson chortled softly, patting his friend on the shoulder and saying, "Well, now things are getting interesting aren't they?"

"I don't really care to go inside that dump," McCloud explained in a plain, firm tone.

"Suck it up," Fara snapped. "We need your telepathic prowess to see if anyone in that bar knows information about the ape we're chasing. Let's try and blend in so we don't scare off a possible future informant." She then offered the two a shrug and added, "A couple of bare bimbos doesn't mean squat. Let's get this job done, maybe get something for our nerves then stock up on supplies like ammunition. This place will have weapons depots with more artillery than some military warehouses. C'mon."

They crossed the central area, heading to the bar known as The Helix. They all had to present their identification to get inside and passed through security at the front doors. The two bouncers that worked there looked as though they were absolute bruisers. Two bovine-descent individuals gave the front end of the bar a very immediate sensation of security. Each bull sported a massive rack of horns. Beyond them, McCloud could catch a glimpse into the establishment.

Nude women of all races seemed to populate the staff of the establishment. Reptilian, canine, feline, avian, the bar had no lack of any race. A cute Memphite woman, carrying a tray of drinks, passed the group upon entrance. The skunkette's alluring smile caused Crimson to become flush.

Upon entrance, both McCloud and O'Donnell were greeted by two attractive huskies. Each hostess' tail curled halfway up her back so that their shapely asses were easily, optically accessible. Fara, only a moment later, was greeted by an absolutely lovely looking vixen that was completely bare-chested. It became plainly obvious that Star felt awkward.

"This is my first time at an establishment such as this," said the fox who tried to avert his eyes to keep from blushing.

"Hey," said Crimson with a relaxed chuckle, "At least the scenery is much nicer than it is out in the rest of the station." Before he could finish his next thought, another pair of women -obviously waitresses- approached the trio.

The first woman, a swift-fox vixen with grayish-silver fur-matching hair, approached Star and leaned in to kiss the side of his muzzle gently. She had her paw extended but Star looked lost. Crimson captured the wrist of his friend, guiding McCloud's paw into the beautiful vulpine creature's paw. O'Donnell then said, "This is his first time to a titty bar," directly into the vixen's ear so that she could hear over the ambient music.

McCloud's muzzle contorted into a moue of disgust. "My godfather, Falco, once told me he wanted to take me to a place like this for my twenty-first birthday."

The other waitress, a charming yet slender coyote, approached Fara, asking if the fennec wished for a drink. Not nearly as voluptuous as her swift-fox coworker, the coyote made up for her lack of bust with incredibly beautiful blue eyes. Fara nodded slightly and ordered some sort of beverage then Crimson followed suit, asking for something for himself.

Star shrugged, lifting his paw to wave off the offer of alcohol so that he could concentrate on using his telepathic abilities to find someone who had information on the lanky-limbed ape that left Sauria in favor of Venom.

A lush little lapin female sauntered over towards the three of them then licked her lips, playfully. Star's eyes widened and he politely nodded towards her, indicating to his team that they should take notice of the hare. "That rabbit knows something about this guy. I sense that she's trying to put work first by greeting us as customers but she's apparently just finished giving a lap dance to a drunk, rather talkative guy who may have said something that we need to know. Let's get her alone in a private room and see if we can pay her for information."

"Mm, sorry sweetheart," said the busty bunny in passing. "But only one person per dancer allowed in each room. It's policy to help prevent rapes and other nasty predicaments."

Fara nudged the younger fox with her elbow. "You're the one who can figure out how to learn what we need to know," she told him. "Go on, McCloud. Crimson and I will stay in the public area, keep out of trouble and assess the situation to see if we can learn anything from the bar tender or waitresses."

"I… guess," Star said, feeling as callow and uncomfortable as he looked. "I'm not sure I wanna be in there alone." Crimson approached his friend and took some of the credits meant for the team's mission, placing a fair amount into McCloud's right paw. Star simply gawked at his friend's wordless suggestion.

The rabbit took Star by his left paw and said, "Come on, it'll be fun and I'll help you loosen up. We can talk about anything you want, sweetheart." With that, she began to lead the pitiable fox off towards the hallway in the back. There were multiple doors leading to multiple small rooms meant for private entertainment.

McCloud glanced over his shoulder but his teammates were out of visual range. Gently ushered by the bunny, Star stepped into the private room which was decorated in plush upholstering. Velvety cushioned bench seating lined the back and left wall while a leather cushioned bed-like mattress was against the right side. Her guiding paw went to the small of his back, escorting him forth until he was more than halfway into the room.

She turned to shut the door behind herself, locking it with a simple twist of a bolt switch. "Make yourself comfortable, Mister…?" She trailed off at the end as a way to ascertain his name.

"…McCloud," said the fox, finishing where she left off. Sensing her very next question, he added, "Yes, like Fox McCloud. Yes, we're related. I was curious about the last gentleman you performed for; did he mention something to you about a lanky ape… One who left Sauria for Venom in the last few hours?"

"Hmm," the dancer mused. She then grinned and said, "I'll be honest: We're not supposed to tell one customer about another customer's business. It's not a law like with Psychologists, but it's a policy because it keeps people from stalking other people who frequent our establishment, like the P.I. who wants to ask questions about an estranged ex-husband on behalf of the wife. That sort of thing, you know?" Her tone hinted a subtle suggestion of an ensuing conjunctive outcome.

Star called her out on that suggestive tone by asking, "But?"

"…But," she continued, playfully looking around in a furtive fashion, "How do I know your intentions are honorable and how do I know I'll be compensated for my information? A utilitarian girl of convenience knows how to be advantageous in a profitable manner. I'm one for expediency and pragmatism; so in short, I've got to make a living, too, sweetheart."

"You're smarter than most men would expect from a stripper," McCloud said, referring to her gracefully intelligent way of wording her last statement.

"We 'strippers' prefer the term, 'Exotic Dancer' more often than not," said the woman. "Because we dance both nude _and_ clothed. I'm Sugar, by the way." Star could sense that her name was a stage-name for her dancing career although common sense suggested that not many people named their daughters 'Sugar', regardless.

The rabbit took him by the wrist and led him to a corner part of the bench, adjacent to the leathery bed. "This is how this is going to work," Sugar continued. She placed her free paw against his chest then guided him down to a seated position. "You're going to pay me for my _time_, I'm going to make _your_ time worth the dance and you're going to give me one extra credit _more_ than the typical tip for everything I tell you."

"What's the normal tip?" Star asked, blatantly displaying his naivety in this situation. "Don't lie, I'll know."

"I'm sure you would," Sugar replied, adding, "Let's be fair, though… what I'm going to offer to do will be worth your money, sweetheart." Her words caused the vulpine pilot to lower his eyes, blushing furiously beneath his fur again. She knelt between his ankles, placing her paws on his thighs. "Now, Mister McCloud, I want your full attention. You're an attractive young man, despite the interesting choice of hair color," she said, up-nodding at his feathery blue bangs.

"It's natural," he explained but was immediately hushed by a touch from her paw which was placed upon his stomach.

"Shh, I'm sure it is," she replied in disbelief but continued anyhow. "Now, as I said, you're a beautiful young man with large and honorable looking eyes. You have a very masculine build and, conversely, a very normal and average sort of accent to your muscular features. I like that; not too bulky and not too dorky. You're right in the middle and I think that's hot."

"So what does that mean?" the pilot inquired politely. "You're clearing your mind so I can't make heads or tails of you," he said. "That makes you much more of a mystery to me and I can't figure out how or why you would do that."

Her paws both slid up under his shirt, sifting her fingertips through the soft, snuggly-feeling fur on his tummy. "Mmm, it's because I'm an open minded woman when I do these special dances."

"Define… special dances?" Star was nibbling on his lower lip now, watching her with a hint of caution in his eyes.

"Just watch and learn. To answer your previous question: I would say five credits per minute of song; I am asking for _six_. The song your friend selected, which was on a small screen outside the door, was a _very_ long song. I guess they either wanted you to have some 'fun' or they wanted you to have a very long conversation with me about my last client."

"Hopefully the latter," Star replied, growing tense as her fingernails gently grazed against his chest, her paws moving further upwards beneath his shirt. "Is this supposed to be how you start a lap-dance or whatever it's called?"

"Partially," Sugar told him with a firm nod. "Just touching because I can."

"You can?" Star asked her. "What if I told you I had a girlfriend and that we're only here to learn about information your last patron spilled to you?"

"She dumped you and you simply want her back," said Sugar who then paused to grin up at him. "I'm a very empathetic individual. Not to be confused with being _empathic_, I simply use my instincts. My woman's intuition is never wrong because I have a strong gut, my dear Mister McCloud. Besides, I can see it in your eyes."

She then clamped her teeth around the fastenings of his pants, pulling the belt buckle from its clasping mechanism. She drew her head back slowly, causing the belt to become undone only to dart her head forth once more, capturing a flap of his pants to pull the button apart. It was sexy and the demure Star McCloud was besides himself in strange emotions that radiated from this… dancer.

Once she'd unfastened his pants, she slowly licked at the front of his boxers, directly over his sheath, then began to trail kisses upwards, over his tummy and chest. His shirt felt tight as if it was chafing his fur and flesh and he didn't know how to react at this point. As soon as she began, the selected song came to life on speakers built into the ceiling of the room.

Her body moved in a sensual way, snaking up over his torso. She placed sensual little kisses against his neck, sliding her knees on either side of his hips, until she was actually straddling his lap. Sugar knew exactly how to play this game and yet Star's Cerinian abilities let him sense the fact that she rarely gave such a personal touch to a performance. She really _was_ giving him a 'special' dance.

Once she was fully perched upon his thighs, she arched her back and lifted her head, gazing upwards and exposing her neck to him. Her paws receded from his shirt so that she could reach back, behind herself, and unhook the skimpy outfit top that she was wearing. The cloth tumbled forth, spilling on his lap, between their bodies.

Her perky, full bosom spilled forth with those cherry-pink pert nubs of flesh dancing inches from his snout. The squadron leader tensed up again. She could feel his body language in such a way from sitting on his lap and so she leaned forward again, so that her lips touched his ear and her breast brushed against his washboard chest. "Just relax for a moment and listen to the song. Don't close your eyes, I want your attention the entire time… else I'm not doing my job, sweetheart."

"But, Miss Sugar," Star quipped only to get a softly padded paw against his lips. She hushed him gently, her lips still against his ear. He could feel his fur beginning to rise, standing on end from the goosebumps that ran down his arms and legs.

Sugar's warm breath was felt against his ear when she spoke. "I'll do the talking, baby. When the time is right, my conversation will go from work related to past-customer related. Just let me do the talking, Mister McCloud." She began to gyrate her hips against his lap, teasing his masculine senses to life but simultaneously making him feel embarrassed.

Perhaps she could sense it by the expression painted upon his muzzle. Regardless, she lifted her head, brushing her chin against those soft locks of his headfur then leaned in to his other ear and said, "You're quite-nicely endowed, incase you wanted an experienced woman's opinion." While it put Star's ego to rest, removing most of his feelings of inadequacy, it also made him feel that much more awkward that she used her tongue to compare him to other men.

"You have the cutest eyes," she playfully added with a knowing smile. Her breast was brushed against his nose again before she leaned back to make sure his eyes were still open. She grinned, seeing that he had never shut them. Slowly, the rabbit reached down to fluff her skirt only to surprise him by unzipping it and throwing it back to the floor. Now completely nude on his lap, the exotic dancer began to grind her body to his in a sensual rhythm to the music filtered into their room.

Her erotic, mischievous body language, while arousing, was only a front. Sugar leaned forward again and whispered into his ear, just loud enough that he could hear over the ambient music. "The man mentioned that Andrew Oikonny was returning to Venom to seek his former power. If you're a government assassin or a mercenary that's shadowing that bastard Oikonny, you will find him in the Capitol of Venom. It's been renamed since the last war, to 'Fang-Claw' in the Venom Language: 'Shray-lek.' No one remembers his attack on Lylat and even our parents only remember his name as something spoken directly before the Aparoid Invasion of '05. But if any Oikonny tries to break the peace between Corneria and Venom again, they deserve to die. I don't know who you _really_ are, but I'm entrusting this information to you in hopes that you'll kill that man."

Sugar's words caused a cold chill to run down McCloud's spine. His muffled reply was spoken against the swells of her pillowy bosom. "Was Andrew Oikonny the man that was hiding out on Sauria up until this point?"

Sugar nodded slowly. "The idiot I danced for last mentioned that Andrew came from his hideout on Sauria and that he was supposed to meet up with the ape after his fighter was fueled up at this station."

"What was that man's name?" Star asked, again speaking directly into her chest, whether he liked it or not.

"I didn't ask; he didn't offer," she said. "I hope this information has been useful to you, Mister McCloud." Before he could reply, she leaned back a little, arched her neck then leaned forward and kissed him roughly. Her paws came to passionately caress his face during the fierce, intense kiss. Low and behold, it was the _second time today_ for this to happen to the fox. He was completely flustered and didn't know what to say or do. She continued to kiss him for another moment until the song ended, then broke the lip-lock with a devious grin.

Once the music faded completely into silence, Sugar slid off his lap, began to dress and then fluffed her hair. She turned about, patted his cheek and said, "Come back and see me after hours when you're done your 'mission'. Maybe we can hang out sometime after one of my shifts. You seem like a good guy, Mister McCloud. A girl can enjoy herself in the company of a nice man. Now, baby, you owe me for a _seven minute song_, plus information gratuity."

Star fastened the front of his pants then lifted the credits still clinched in his right paw. He paused for a moment, thinking better of her information, then handed her a rather generous amount that was _double_ of her asking price. "Thank you for not lying to me; I really appreciate an honest person."

Her eyes quickly flitted to his blue hair but, sensing her thoughts, he added, "It really is naturally blue. I've gotten used to it. My mother was Krystal McCloud." He then pocketed the remaining credits that Crimson had handed over. "Don't be _too_ offended if I don't take you up on your offer to hang out again. I really do want to work things out with my sweetheart."

"Like I said," Sugar told him with a soft smile, "You seem like a good guy. I didn't expect you to take me up on that offer. Good luck finding your way around the streets of Venom." She reached to pat the side of his muzzle then added, "And you really _are_ better endowed than most vulpine gentlemen. Horses aside, you'll really make that 'sweetheart' of yours a lucky girl." Sugar turned for the door, opened it and stepped out into the hallway. She cast the fox a grin over her shoulder then walked off, down the hallway.

* * *

A/N: _Now you guys know why I didn't rate THIS reflections story "K – K+" like my last ones. Teenage themes, some language, fairly paced action and suggestive themes. It's not as gory as The Curse but it's not for 10 year olds, either :D _

_Don't worry, you guys won't ever have to see any of my MATURE writing because it wouldn't last on Fan Fiction's website anyhow. I always try to draw the line before slipping into the land of 'politically incorrect'. XD _

_Next chapter soon! _


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: _So, here we are: 7th chapter. Between raising the next generation of Ken Weaver, playing video games and working on at least one of my 3 "to-be-published" manuscripts(which have nothing to do with Furry or FanFiction in any way. I've been at one of them since 2003, called The Price Of Freedom), I've been investing some real time into finishing the fan-fiction pieces I started on in the past. Now, let's see some more cool flashback scenes this chapter! Oh and let's see some political intrigue! _

_By the way, I've reached **over** 10 thousand hits on_ Reflections Of The Future_. It gets 200+ hits a week and I just wanted to thank you guys for that! I know I wrote Krystal as a general Mary Sue (as opposed to a damsel in distress)but the feedback and amount of people reading it really blows my mind. Anyway, thank you guys!_

_P-Sout! _

* * *

Chapter -7-

**GreatFox II was in the final stages** of repair. It would be ready for departure in the morning, leaving the small team an evening to sleep before heading to Shray-lek, also known as FANG-CLAW, the new Capital of Venom. Star McCloud gathered some supplies with Crimson's money and Fara helped them to decide what would be needed. Once the group was settled, they all returned to the GreatFox in dry-dock.

As the group passed through the dry-dock hanger, en' route to their vessel, Fara came alongside of McCloud and asked, "I thought this ship was destroyed in the Aparoid invasion? At least that's what I read when catching up on the history I've missed."

McCloud shook his head slowly and replied, "No, Peppy crashed the last generation of this model into the Aparoid home world. The replacement was far different looking than the gooseneck dreadnaught carrier... Think of a classic-style Aircraft Carrier, long and rectangular. Peppy left the team to become a General, replacing Pepper. Falco and Slippy became less involved in the team and other members came and went." He paused and opened the hatch for Fara and Crimson.

Once everyone was inside, Star closed the hatch behind himself then turned back to the vixen. "Any how," he continued, "The team split up for a while, then Slippy started a family, Peppy wanted the space to bond with his daughter, so she moved in for a while… Mom and dad began raising me on the ship. It wasn't long before we needed more rooms. We even had more pilots for a while, so we invested in two ships… The carrier and the cruiser. For reasons of nostalgiea, they decided to make the secondary ship resemble the original GreatFox; my parents were fond of it so they lived here, most of the team lived on the other side. After a few years, everyone left except for my parents, Peppy and Lucy. Then, about six years ago, Falco separated from his wife, calling it a temporary setback. Then, when Theodore started private school, Slippy and Amanda returned to GreatFox so they could save on rent to pay for his tuition. Shortly after the entire team was reassembled, Dad lead the StarFox _Armada_ to a great deal of success. With the entire team assembled, Andross decided to take notice… we got word that there was a strange disturbance in the quadrant adjacent to the Saurian sector."

Fara frowned and concluded the rest. "Andross attacked and the team because he could punish all his enemies at one time. He knew the pilots had been on extended hiatus from one another. Because the pilots had been away from one another for so long, they weren't able to fight as effectively," she said, quoting part of a historical article on the battle she'd read in the news archive. "Andross knew it was the perfect time to strike because they were so far from being polished… they'd not trained together in ages and he took advantage of it." Fara, the first year after waking from dormancy, became obsessed with learning about how Fox died. "Andross' science paid off, he outlived his enemies; your parents became overwhelmed during the fight. The ambush destroyed the team, vaporized one ship and crushed the other, leaving it to fall over Sauria… It was reported that _all hands were lost_ but… you escaped?"

"Mom shoved me into an escape pod," said Star, adding, "…with Peppy, actually. We made a quick jump only to crash on Katina. I still don't know what happened to the other ship. All those pilots... Assumedly, all hands were lost. StarFox's other ship, the entire carrier, was vaporized without so much as a single trace of any debris. Peppy and I went below radar and used fake names to get an apartment lease. We didn't want Andross coming after us to finish the job. Peppy was too old and I was too young – I didn't even finish school let alone my last three years at the academy."

"Hey, lady," Crimson cut in. "Don't bring this up, you'll give him nightmares. No joke, he relives those days and I don't think it has to do with some post traumatic syndrome, either."

"He's right," McCloud muttered with a sigh. "It has something to do with my telepathic abilities, according to the psychologist my parents got me as a teenager."

"I don't understand," Fara said, crossing the bridge and sitting down in a chair. Both boys found their own seat and Star began to pull the white beads from the azure locks of his hair.

"It's like this," He continued, fluffing his bangs with his paws. "I've had this strange ability since, like, I guess around puberty. My dreams are filled with historical past. Sometimes, I live out the life of someone else. Most of the time, I live out my own past life. Anyway, it's hard to explain and really kinda personal so I usually don't talk about it."

Crimson face-faulted. "Sorry, dude. I know it's personal and all; I didn't think before bringing it up."

"It's no big deal," McCloud replied. "I'm just a weird sort of guy. It's not a power I can control and it's not an ability that I consider a 'power', like my telepathic... you know... power."

Star glanced over at Red then back at Miss Phoenix and added, "We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow. I don't know if Fara will be staying with the team, but until she decides that, I'm not going to give her any orders. Crimson, I suggest you hit the sack, bud. I need you to be sharp as a tack tomorrow, when we infiltrate that city and hunt this guy down."

"I'm starting to think you might be right about Violet," Crimson said. "We could use her help on a mission like this."

"I'll call her before I turn in," McCloud said. "But, even if she came out and met us as early as tomorrow... I wouldn't put her in the field until we're all working together as a team unless I had no choice. We have to be a fully functioning unit, able to anticipate the next move of one another, that way we can get the most done without getting killed."

"And what about Fara, here?" Crimson asked, hooking a thumb at the fennec vixen who sat next to the communications terminal. McCloud's eyes lifted, returning to Fara, raking over her form. She sat there, quietly ruffling and straightening the fur of her tail.

"She has a natural flair for fitting in," Star said. "She's a seasoned military veteran with combat experience and intelligent combat tactics that will help us survive as a young mercenary group. She seems highly adaptable and I trust her judgment."

"Well damn," Red replied with a chuckle. "So her importance to this team outweighs her lack of time with the team. What about Violet Lombardi?"

"She's a great pilot and an incredibly competent engineer, don't get me wrong," McCloud explained. "I just don't want someone as young and naïve as _we_ are, out here trying to figure _us_ out while _we_ try and figure _her_ out. That and... Well, Violet and I have not yet reconciled our relationship so personal crap would interfere. Anyhow, I think Fara would agree with me if I said we should just do this mission as a trio and see if we live through it, first."

"I _can_ agree with that." The voice belonged to Fara Phoenix. The fennec stood up from her chair, walked between the two boys, fluffing both of their headfur with her paws, then she went for the door. "Goodnight, gentleman. I'll see you both in the morning when we're ready for departure."

"Well, she listens pretty well," McCloud said, turning to Red and offering a lopsided grin. "Hit the sack, pilot. I'll see you in the morning."

"All right, Captain. Have a good one," Crimson said, standing up and stretching. "Maybe I'll get lucky, like Mac here, and 'Sugar' will show up …in my quarters."

"Yeah," Fara chided, "And Fox McCloud will appear in my..." the fennec froze then offered an apologetic shrug. "Sorry." She suddenly changed her demeanor, turning to face Star with a frown. "Never mind. Have a good night, gentleman. And Star?" She turned her attention to the young McCloud who cringed upon hearing his name. She offered a polite smile and told him, "I'll sleep on it. I'll let you know tomorrow." She then went through the door, which slid shut behind her.

"What's she talking about?" Crimson asked.

Having understood her, using his telepathic abilities, Star said, "She's thinking about staying part of the team and joining our little _'family'_." To his words, Crimson frowned again. "What is it, Red? You're hard to read right now. What's the problem?"

"It's nothing man. You know how I feel about my _real_ family, that's all." O'Donnell shrugged then headed for the door. It swished open and he stopped to look back at McCloud. "Any word from Bill Grey?"

"I've not contacted him lately. I guess I'll add it to my list, after Violet," McCloud mused thoughtfully, speaking aloud but mostly speaking to himself. "He's more of a roommate than family, anyhow. Peppy felt more like family than Bill ever did."

"Why don't you just, you know..." Crimson paused and shrugged.

"Move out?" Star said, finishing his friend's question. "If we can afford to keep this ship, I will. But the expense is fairly high. The upkeep alone is insane. We'll see; if we successfully bag this douche-bag, tomorrow, then I'll lean towards living on GreatFox II. Bill won't mind, but I suppose I should tell him what's going on."

"There ya go," Crimson said. "Does he still hate me because my father is Wolf O'Donnell?"

"Yeah, unfortunately," Star replied with a firm nod. "All right, get some shut eye. I'll feed Tricky and then head to bed, myself. I'll see you two in the morning."

"And no, it's not that I'm hiding something from you," Crimson said, knowing that his friend was trying to probe the half-lupine's thoughts. "It's just long and complicated and my family sucks. It's convoluted, problematical and I don't want to get into it, right now. So I'm blocking it all from my thoughts, _not_ 'hiding' it from you."

"I didn't even bring it up," McCloud quickly rebutted. "I will say this, however, so that you _don't_ have to _feel_ _like_ you're hiding it… You have a twin sister you don't like to talk about and your mother somehow knows my father closely. You don't like to talk about it because it's complicated and you'd prefer we continue our friendship as best friends than introduce some measure of drama that might harm the chemistry we have as a team. Does that about sum it all up?"

Crimson swallowed hard then nodded slowly. Star didn't learn _everything_ but the boy knew more than enough. O'Donnell simply said, "You've pretty much got it. And no, I don't like to talk about Bliss. Let's go to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

"That's fine. I don't like to talk about certain things, either. We're all mortal, right? Goodnight, Red." Star waved a paw as his friend stepped off the deck. The bridge grew quiet and Star simply sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. He'd have to call both Bill and Violet, then feed Tricky before heading to bed.

Distracted, the pilot turned to the chair his father used to sit in. He traced his fingers over the control panel, remembering how Fox McCloud used to tap his fingers on the buttons in the armchair. His mother used to sit in this chair from time to time as well. He could sense the imprint of her past presence by placing his paw on the controls and closing his eyes.

Within his mind, he could see something falling to the floor. It shimmered in the room's ambient lighting, collapsing upon the ground beneath the control panel. A blue-furred paw came upon it with an orange furred one almost directly afterwards. McCloud's eyes were shut but he was having a vision in his mind, just as if he were watching this entire scene unfold on a holo-vision.

Krystal's eyes opened, in his mind, glancing up at Fox McCloud who frowned thoughtfully. His jaw parted to speak but he didn't seem to know how to say what he wanted. Finally, pushing out the words, Fox said to his mate, "I won't leave you again."

"I'm sorry you left me the first time. I always worry it will happen again," She told him.

"It was out of concern for your safety. Surly you must know I'm telling the truth," Fox replied defensively.

"The truth of your concern isn't what's at stake here, Fox." Krystal glanced away, lowering her head just a bit then she added, "Perhaps it's because I'm the last of my race. No one feels more alone than I do, at times. When you ended our relationship, I was consumed by an emotional pain you'll never understand."

Fox quickly protested, placing his free paw beneath her chin and turning her to face him. Their gaze locked and as shy as he used to be when they first met, he couldn't have been surer of himself, now. "Krystal, I never intended to hurt or wrong you. We've married; we have a son now. My mistake may live forever in our past but let's leave it there… _in_ our past. I don't want to abandon you again; you're my other half. You may not be from Lylat but I believe that you_ are_ my soul mate."

Krystal's soft eyes held his reflection in those twin mirrored emeralds. She leaned forward seeking confirmation of his love through the connection and contact of a kiss. Suddenly, Star McCloud sat up in the captain's seat, blinking rapidly. His heart was beating quickly from the sensation of living through the intense love of what his parents felt for one another. And yet, it was strange to learn some of the details of his parent's breakup, before he was born. It was equally troubling to know that his mother felt affected by it so deeply. It hurt to sense that she'd never let that moment go in their past. It was equally humbling to understand that his father wanted nothing more than to change the past to better their future together.

The two of them in that moment forgot the locket, which had fallen to the floor. Star thought better upon the situation and lowered his head to peer beneath the control panel of the captain's seat. His eyes widened upon discovering that the golden locket was still there, on the floor. After all these years, it never tumbled out from beneath the panel, even after the ship crash-landed, moments after losing gravity.

He pushed his paw beneath the computer system built into the side of the seat and after a moment of pawing at the object, he retrieved it. No sooner did he hold the necklace up to the light did a new flashback begin. He could see his father taking the necklace off his mother while she was pregnant. Because she was so radiant, young McCloud decided that his mother was incredibly beautiful in this way. Her aura seemed to incandesce brightly and her spirit emanated with all the natural highs his race's females experienced.

Cerinian women, when impregnated, manufactured endorphins and powerful bodily chemicals, which caused them to elevate into a state of intense bliss. During pregnancy, Krystal was the cliché princess, singing and knitting, happily buzzing about like a honeybee. In the vision, the reason his father was removing it from her neck was because they were about to lie down together, as man and wife. Romance was still alive. During her pregnancy, all memories of Fox leaving her fell to the wayside, thanks to the chemical her body produced.

Thusly, Fox McCloud was confused later on, when Krystal was worried over the history of his decision. Females were a funny thing. Violet, too, was quick to worry over simple things when Star's intentions were far less complex. Did he love the Lombardi girl as much as he initially thought? He couldn't even begin to figure it out; the thought of her returning made him nervous – was that love?

Reverently holding the locket in his paws, Star left the bridge and headed for his parent's room. The door grunted open and there he stood in the midst of their belongings. His mother's display case still rested in the middle of the living room floor, cracked and empty. Continuing passed it, he went towards their bedroom and opened the door. As soon as his paw touched the entry control button, another flashback flickered before his eyes.

In a brief instant, he viewed a passionate moment of intimacy between his parents. Their lips locked and Krystal gasped, her back pressed against the bedroom door. Her paw fumbled for the button that allowed the two of them to spill into the room. Her body fell back over the mattress and Fox moved over her, rolling his form against hers in a way that made the young pilot blush. "Guess they weren't _always_ arguing about that break up," he mused aloud, suddenly shocked back to the present by his own voice.

He crossed the bedroom, looking at the various trinkets and belongings strewn across the floor. These objects once graced the countertops and such, but the crash on Sauria was the most likely culprit for this mess. A display case on the far wall held Krystal's ruby and gold jewelry. Profligate and ornate – these decadent artifacts, designed for opulence, glittered in the blue floodlight of the empty display case behind him. These were the jewels Krystal wore the day she met Fox McCloud. Their luster never waned.

A folded red handkerchief-like cloth lay on the floor with only a single wrinkle in it. Picking it up, Star realized that it was his father's uniform scarf, only to fall victim to yet another flashback. He saw his mother reach up and place a bloody paw against it. Fox held her injured body in his arms. Star saw a mission gone awry, sometime after the Aparoid Invasion.

They had returned from their last major mission as a new couple, dating for approximately three months when their focused their attention on helping Corneria be restored. In the vision, Fox and Krystal were hired to help escort medical supplies from Katina to Corneria.

In that revelation, Star was somehow able to catch what appeared to be a fleeting glimpse into his parent's minds at the time of this emotional occasion. Somehow, Krystal had been injured and Fox held himself responsible. There was one other small incident that led up to Fox breaking up with her out of fear for her safety but this particular occasion was a large part of Fox's personal reasoning. For only a moment, Star saw through his father's eyes, looking down at his mother in his arms, who reached up with a bloody paw and clung to his scarf. Her dim, weak green gaze lifted to his and she wept softly, saying, "I'm not your damsel in distress, Fox. I don't mean to have disappointed you."

Blinded by tears of burden, Fox replied, "I'm too dangerous of a man; if you stay with me, you'll wind up dead and I'll be heartbroken," to her. The reverie ended, leaving Star alone in the dim illumination of his parent's den. The place felt haunted with emotions and visions that kept his parents alive as memories. Some were good and others were not but every single one had the same theme… His parents loved each other and worried about one another a great deal, especially when they reconciled their relationship. His father's heartfelt apology to Krystal and her unyielding love and acquiescence to his desire to rekindle their relationship filled this room; each emotion was like another ghost, haunting him from beyond the grave.

There were many adventures in this room. From missions they worked together to learning the value of teamwork as a married couple, Star could feel the tangible sensation of love recorded in the walls and the artifacts that lined it. Each of their personal possessions was a historical artifact as far as Star was concerned.

He felt so emotional about their loss that his empathic abilities became highly sensitive while in this room. Trailing his fingers over their belongings, a simple hairbrush brought him memories of Krystal straightening her hair at a bathroom mirror one morning. Fox nipped and nibbled upon her neck, standing directly behind his vixen, paws upon her hips. Star could see his father's reflection; Fox's head was resting on Krystal's shoulder. The young McCloud blinked and the momentary trance came to its conclusion.

A garter belt, which hung from over their mirror, brought memories of a wedding reception where Fox had to draw off the fabric with his teeth from beneath her dress before throwing it to the eligible bachelors in attendance. …Star wasn't quite sure how his parents got that article of clothing back from the bachelor who caught it, but it didn't matter.

In the end, Star began to realize that his mental fortitude was completely gone concerning the murder of his parents. Anger welled up within his chest, directed towards Andross Oikonny and the entire Empire of Venom. He wanted nothing more than to crush Andross with his bare paws. "If I ever come face to face with an Oikonny," he whispered aloud. Any relative of Andross was an enemy of the McCloud family.

"It will be a joy," he mumbled softly, continuing the thought in his mind. For Star, he knew it would be a joy to take down Andrew Oikonny. But there were other thoughts as well. He wondered if he could use Andrew as bait to lure Andross out of hiding. The question of the night was concerning honor. Was using Andrew as bait a civilized, honorable move? He simply wasn't sure yet. Not only that, if Andross came out of hiding, would this current rendition of StarFox be capable and competent to defeat the archaic doctor?

* * *

**The soft grunt of rusted door filled the room** and Crimson O'Donnell dashed in, grabbing Star by his shoulders. McCloud, groggy, awoke from his slumber to find himself face to face with his best friend. "Wh-what is it?" he asked, bleary-eyed. 

"You weren't in your room, and I started wondering if Fara's words about your dad gave you nightmares again," said O'Donnell. "I tracked down Tricky and fed him, then I realized you weren't in your quarters or anywhere else for that matter. What're you doing _here_?"

"I…" Star trailed off, sitting up on his parent's bed. He glanced around, reaching up to rub at his eyes for a moment. "I must have just passed out. No, it isn't like that. I found a locket that belonged to my mother on the bridge, under the captain's chair. I brought it here to put it away when I became overwhelmed with strange flashbacks every time I touched something in this room. I must have become overwhelmed and mentally shut down because I don't remember having _any_ dreams, this time."

"You realize it's two in the morning?" O'Donnell muttered. "I can't believe I come and check on you to make sure you don't need to be woken up; I just about tripped when you weren't in your quarters. I started checking all the rooms, one by one… Including Fara's room incase you were tagging that ass." The lupine offered a slight grin.

"Red," McCloud snapped in a scolding tone. His voice softened then he added, "She may have kissed me but I don't think it was because she wanted sex."

"Well, I checked there anyway," O'Donnell replied thoughtfully. "She's sleeping pretty soundly, incase you were wondering. I didn't wake her up on account of not being able to find you. What in the world are you doing in here?"

"You already asked that," McCloud said. He shook his head roughly, the way one might try to dry their fur. He stood up from the bed and shook again, starting at his neck. The shake continued down his body, ending at his tail, flourishing his thick brush. He placed his paws against his hips then arched backwards to stretch his backbone.

"What was that all about?" Red asked, furrowing his brows.

McCloud cast a dull gaze at his friend, gawking at him stupidly, as if mocking the half-breed. "Waking myself up? It also works well when you fall in the pond and don't have a towel."

"Shut up, I remember that," groused Wolf's son, folding his forearms across his chest. "Violet pushed me in, I swear. I don't care if you couldn't sense guilt on her; she probably didn't feel any and had you so wrapped up around her finger that your telepathy failed. That girl pushed me in on purpose, I swear it."

"Oh give it up, that was ages ago," Star chuckled, easily amused by the fact that his little joke got Crimson so riled up.

"More like the last time we saw her," O'Donnell reminded then said, "But whatever. I bet you didn't even call her tonight."

"I didn't call Bill either," McCloud admitted sourly. "And yeah, I was wrapped around her finger," the vulpine pilot mused, adding, "Two years ago." The soft blue fur of the star-shaped birthmark around his eye caused his green irises to contrast differently. At a glance, Crimson noted that it caused his eyes to look two different hues of the same shade. In the dim lighting cast into the bedroom from the doorway, Star appeared to have two different color eyes: Green and aquamarine. It didn't rightly matter, though. Crimson knew better and lifted his paw, pointing at the door.

"You forgot to take out your contacts before you fell asleep; it doesn't look natural in this lighting, though." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder and backed towards the door to the living room. "Let's go, Mac," he told the team leader, tapping his left foot to imply impatience.

"You know, you're the only person who knows I wear one? Anyhow, I want to find that Andrew Oikonny guy and use him for _bait_ to find Andross," McCloud told his friend. "The thing is, Red, we're not ready as a team to take on someone like Andross. The Cornerian General isn't Peppy or Pepper or anyone we're on special terms with, so it won't happen, anyways. But we still might want to find out what he was doing on Sauria so we can report it to Corneria, just the same."

Crimson shrugged, asking, "Hey, how did your father develop his friendship with Generals? Maybe we can pull our weight really well and do the same thing?"

"Pepper was friends with Peppy," Star explained. "When Peppy replaced the hound, he'd been on the StarFox squadron since before the team went mercenary. Unless Bill Grey was to become the General, I don't see us having any special ties the way my father's team had. We're not that lucky; we'll have to actually _earn_ our table scraps. Even after Peppy retired back to the StarFox team, as Ex-General of the fleet, the team had ties to the Cornerian government and military. They were exceedingly lucky and wouldn't have been nearly as rich of a team without those connections."

Crimson simply shrugged in reply. After a short pause, he decided to vocalize his thoughts, saying, "I guess we need to find a way to have connections to the Cornerian Government. We're smart, we'll think of something. What would make you think that they would call Bill Grey, anyhow?"

"I saw it in a dream once; he was the only combat vet with a good enough record for the government for some reason. Bill took the position but only temporarily until a suitable replacement could be found – I'm not sure if they found one or if he stayed General until retirement. Also, he's young enough to have his wit but old enough to have wisdom. As far as being connected to the Cornerian Government? Well, we can worry about that tomorrow," explained Star, ending on a mumble and rubbing at his eyes again. "For now, let's go to bed. I'll head to my room; I'll call Violet and Bill in the morning."

* * *

**General Chester Bishop stood stoically** before the window of his office. On this part of Corneria, it was 0800 hours and with the system-wide peace, he'd never seen a single day of combat. In fact, with so many older soldiers and officers having recently retired, most of Corneria's current military never knew combat. Bishop had gone his entire carrier without ever seeing a skirmish, ever having to make wartime calls or order a tactic for the survival of a single soldier. 

A knock at his office door caused his ears to perk. "Come in," replied the canine in a baritone voice. A uniformed man stepped into the Sheppard's office with a delivery package. General Bishop turned about, offering a silly sort of smile. In almost naïve fashion, Chester Bishop approached the courier and picked a pen up from his desk to sign for the delivery.

"Good morning, Charlie," the general said to the delivery agent. They'd seen one another at least a hundred times over the past year. It was rare that the courier ever brought a box but with peace in Lylat, the government had grown relaxed. Protocol for routing something like a package became as simple as sending a delivery boy.

"Good morning, General," Charlie, a sharp-featured setter, replied in a polite voice. "Is it your birthday or something, General? I rarely get over-night packages for you and this one didn't even have a return address."

"That's odd; it might be something my wife ordered online," General Bishop said with a slight shrug. The Sheppard began to open the box with his paws. His eyes widened in curiosity. "There's a letter on top of all the packing Styrofoam. It reads, '_Roses of Revenge, Violets of Irony… You must all bow down to the Emperor, Andrew Oikonny.'_ And, what's more, there seems to be a list of numbers at the bottom of the page. I vaguely remember that name… He was the moron who tried to go to war with Corneria before the Aparoids defeated him in mid-battle."

Without further warning, a device inside of the box detonated. Its powerful blast ripped through the front of the building, causing a ribbon of yellow and scarlet to erupt from the window so that the entire interstate could see it. For Andrew Oikonny, this happened all too easily.

* * *

**Half an hour later, on the Planet Katina**, William Grey received a phone call. Not yet awake, he took the phone off the cradle and pulled the receiver to his ear. "Yeah, what is it?" 

"Is this Major William Grey?" asked a voice on the other end of the line, adding, "The very same Bill Grey of Katina's Husky and Bulldog unit?"

"No, I'm half-husky, half _greyhound_," Bill chided, answering the man's question with an answer of ethnicity. "This is _retired_ Major William Grey; wait a minute, is this …a telemarketer?" Bill asked hesitantly.

The voice continued, "This is acting General, Ling Foster; there has been a terrible accident at the Military Headquarters. I understand that you are a combat tactician?"

"Acting General?" Bill asked, his sleepy mind beginning to clear. "I thought the General was some guy named Chester Bishop? Foster? Aren't you a Lieutenant General or something? Three stars, right?"

The cheetah on the other end was beginning to sound irritated. "There's been an accident at the headquarters building; our five-star and four-star Generals are unable to fulfill their military obligation. I require your presence immediately as I have urgent need for a combat strategist like yourself, Major. If you're willing to come up here right away, I'll have an interplanetary travel accommodation made for you. Also, I will need to ask that you do _not_ speak to the media until we know more about what's going on."

"Are you asking me to voluntarily come back to active duty? What happened to the four and five star brass?" queried Grey with a peaked interest.

"I can't exactly tell you what happened but I will say that we're still matching dental records right now. I'm _requesting_ your return to active duty; retired or not, you're still on the reserves, collecting paychecks," said the cheetah, the temporary General, Ling Foster. "But this situation is far more serious than I can explain over the telephone. We don't have any combat-experienced brass and there are several men dead."

Bill sighed, running his free paw up through his hair. "What in the hell happened, over there?"

"Turn on the television while you get ready," Foster told the dog. "Your ride will be there to pick you up in twenty minutes, Sir."

"Sir?" Bill blinked. "What do you mean 'Sir'?"

Ling Foster cleared his throat and said, "We'll explain when you arrive, Sir. Please be prompt, this is a system-wide emergency. The murder of two Generals, a colonel, a civilian postal worker and several staff members… is a blatant act of War. We have an audio surveillance tape for you to review and the culprit's name is spoken before the incident occurs; it's our only clue. This is a bold strike against Corneria and your immediate presence is required. We'll review the pressing matters upon your arrival. Remember, don't speak to the press; you don't know anything just yet, other than the fact that you were called back to active duty. See you when you arrive on Corneria." The line went silent.

"I'm sure you won't mind me taking a moment to leave a note for my roommate," Bill said to the dead line. He hung the receiver up on its cradle, snatching a pen and paper from his desk. Scribbling something down on a half-torn page, Bill taped it to the wall directly in front of his videophone camera. The canine punched in a few buttons on the phone. He programmed it to answer autonomously for Star McCloud. He checked the videophone camera's focus factoring then leveled it on his letter. After that, Bill went to get ready.

* * *

A/N: _Chapter 8 is already MORE than a quarter way to completion. This is a twist of fate that will work in StarFox's Favor… or will it? After all, Bill doesn't like or trust Crimson O'Donnell. And what about Bliss? Will we ever meet her? Why did Andrew strike at Corneria so soon after leaving his Saurian hiding spot and what kept the ape on Sauria for so long? There are a lot of combat scenes coming up in chapter 8. Sorry this chapter was so short; I'll see you guys soon!_

_-kit_


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: _I just couldn't find myself happy with this chapter at first. LOL. So … I rewrote it! For those of you excited about StarFox Command for the Nintendo DS, we'll finally learn more about some of the new characters in this chapter… Lucy Hare and Amanda, the female rabbit and female frog seen in only a few internet pictures of the game, thusfar. We'll soon learn about who they are, were, will become and how Star feels about them. _

_Also, I've been blamed for jumping from one thing right into another without transition. So, I guess I've changed Chapter 8, so we don't 'jump right into something without a transition'. So, I made a longer transitional chapter. I started writing this at about 8:30pm. It's now 2am and I'm finished. Sorry it took so long, I started over from scratch, page one, at 8:30, lol. Sorry there isn't a huge combat action scene in this chapter, I guess I had more transitioning to do than I realized. The chapter ends with the team standing under falling bombs so I can guarentee that the action of Chapter 9 will be totally in your face. You can't ask for a better action-promise cliff hanger than by putting your heroes on the receiving end of munitions. VERY little is known about Lucy and Amanda. I'm not even sure that's really their names, because it's all japanese lettering, on their Japanese DS site. However, Lucy IS Peppy's daughter! And now you know... you read it here first :D Enjoy! _

_Here we go!

* * *

_

Chapter -8-

**Once McCloud was back in his own room**, he found it easy to dream but less mentally draining than when he'd fainted in his parent's room. His dreams began with the destruction of GreatFox II which sank into the Saurian Atmosphere before his very eyes. Peppy was behind him, at the controls of an escape pod and moments later, they were trying to outrun a Venom fighter.

This time, however, the dream shifted it's time sequence. Shortly after the crash on Katina, Star woke up just enough to roll over in bed and glance at a clock. Once his eyes shut, his dream picked up further in the future, while he was living with Peppy Hare.

_"Tap your "Z" or "R" rudder peddles, McCloud. Your father became quite familiar with this barrel roll, as the Arwing's design made it possible to deflect most types of incoming ammunition. It's the most basic form of evasive flying." Peppy and Star were practicing in the canyon with borrowed fighters. _

_"Why do you think my mother and father refused me the chance to help them?" McCloud asked, shifting his weight in the cockpit. The G-Diffuser allowed for gravity to be displaced during the barrel roll so that it felt like he never moved and yet the world around him spun about the canopy until the sky was above him once more. _

_"As a parent," Peppy began, looking for the right words to use. "I can imagine that it's the same reason I was once worried when Lucy joined the StarFox team as a permanent member."_

_"Do you miss her?" Star asked, sensing the answer to his question before Peppy could even offer a reply. "I'm sorry," McCloud added almost directly overtop of his own question. "I know she meant a world of joy for you. I know you always kept your business and family life completely separate to protect her. I guess the reason I identify with you so well is because you lost someone the way I lost someone." _

_"Star, you lost your mother, father and all the friends you've ever known," Peppy said empathetically. "That's hard for a teenage boy to swallow. I lost my daughter but I don't know if she's really dead or if she's missing in action. Everything I've read about the Gravity Bomb leads me to believe that there's a chance she survived, somewhere else in the galaxy." _

_"This isn't a contest," Star replied, easing into the flight yolk until he was parallel to Peppy's ship. "Just because I lost a mother and a father doesn't mean my loss is any more tragic than you losing your daughter. We're in the same boat, old timer." _

_Peppy glanced down at his sensor readout in a moment of slight repose. Finally, the retired General said, "Lucy was a woman's woman. Pink and white ship, a heart on the tail flaps… She was a valedictorian in school and advanced through the academy in the gifted and talented program. But she volunteered to begin her career as a pilot. I waited until she was old enough to make her own decisions before I enrolled her into anything that would lead to flying. She knew the consequences. You, on the other paw, never asked to be in a situation where you would lose your family." _

_"Either way," Star sighed, "We're in this together. You've been like a grandfather to me ever since you retired from the fleet and came back to live on the GreatFox II. I'm lucky to have you help raise me." _

_"I won't be alive forever," Peppy rebutted. "I'm serious, Star. I'm an old man. If we didn't have G-Diffusers, I wouldn't be able to fly this thing because the force of gravity of a mere takeoff would probably stop my old ticker." _

_"Your heart is strong, you're fine," Star replied. "You just had your physical last week; did you already forget that the doctor said you'll probably be around longer than him?" _

_"It's a figure of speech," Peppy explained. "I've been flying since God was a boy… When you get to be my age, you know you're even less invincible than the days when you were flying for your very life. I have no delusions of living to see you married with children." _

_"Be optimistic," Star chided. _

_The aging hare simply chuckled then cast his gaze over at the video communicator before returning his eyes to the canyon before them. "I am; I have been for decades. Not everyone lives passed 80 and I've already left that number in the dust." _

_"Hey," Star said, changing the subject, "Look at the change in topography." His attention fell to his sensor scope, showing that the Canyon had a strange, almost pattern oriented flooring. "What do you think caused that?" _

_"I'd have to compare it to my maps of this area from in the past," Peppy said, adding, "However, I don't recall those odd shapes. They appear to be vents but look more like gills." _

_"Wanna set down and check it out?" Star asked. _

_"Look at me, I can hardly go to the mailbox without a walker," Peppy said, trying not to chuckle. It was a dark sense of humor for someone like Peppy Hare. Either way, Star could sense that the lapin's curiosity was also piqued. Before either of them could say another word, a set of bogies popped up on their radar. The proximity alarm sounded and the cockpit of each fighter flashed red for a split second. "We're not exactly armed; those projectiles are obviously hostile. Let's book it back to the base and report this!" _

_"Evasive maneuvers would be good right about now!" Star shouted, dodging the first object of the group. Glancing up through his cockpit as the object passed by, flying upwards, Star noticed that it looked like a telephone pole with a booster at the base. "Those are missiles! 'Obviously Hostile' is an understatement! I think we're being marked!" _

_"Star, wake up." The voice didn't belong to Peppy. "I said wake up, sweetheart!" It was a familiar feminine voice. Star squinted his eyes tightly, sitting up in his cockpit. He suddenly realized that the entire time, he was leaning back so far in his pilot's seat that he was nearly laying flat on his back. Sitting up further, his eyes began to squeeze tight so that not even the afternoon daylight could be seen through the corners of his eyelids. _

…His eyes fluttered open, staring wide eyed at Fara Phoenix who sat on the edge of the bed. McCloud wasn't exactly sure where Fara obtained it, but the fennec was wearing a nightgown. "Crimson was going to come and check on you but I told him that I would do it. So, he got in the shower. He was right," She added, saying, "You _do_ have nightmares. You were saying something under your breath but the last thing you said sounded like 'we're being marked.' Is everything all right? It wasn't a future premonition was it?"

"N-no," McCloud blinked, realizing that he was stammering. "Did I just stutter?"

"Yeah, sounds like you did," Phoenix replied softly. "A past memory then?"

"A little distorted but yes," Star told her, "It was something right out of the old memory banks. I was flying a practice run with Peppy about 3 weeks before he passed away in his sleep. There were military underground missiles in that canyon which automatically deployed because of a glitch in the system. It was my technically my first time under fire in a real situation. I'll never forget how intense it was."

"Looks like you handled it; you're here, after all." Fara's tone of voice was fairly cheerful. "We'll be attacking this Andrew Oikonny chump, and I know that both of you are inexperienced combat pilots. I want you both to be on your toes today. I'll give you the same thing I gave Crimson… for good luck." She leaned forward, brushing her lips against McCloud's cheek. Her nose burrowed into the fur on the side of his face until he could feel the coolness of it against his skin.

Once she pulled back, Star lifted his paw and placed it against his cheek, where her lips had just been. He turned to face her and offered a smile. "Thanks. For some reason, I think I needed that."

"I'm going to clean up and suit up." Fara then asked, "Do you think GreatFox II will make it from this station to Venom orbit?"

"With the slight repairs done so far, we have fully operational systems," Star explained. "There's no reason we shouldn't make it. The plating taken from one of the Phoenix Transport ships should last. They're not armored but I have no reason to suspect that we'll face any aerial combat. Besides, we only have one Arwing and I don't even know if it will fly, yet."

"Hmm," Fara said, suddenly smiling. Star blinked, facing her directly. His eyes bore into her as if scrutinizing her. He could sense that she was hiding something and he wanted to know what was going on. Before even asking her, she lifted a paw to keep him quiet. Fara glanced around, as if furtively, then told him, "I have a surprise for you. Two surprises, actually. First of all, the Arwing flies. I checked it out early this morning. I've been up for quite a while, now."

"Wh-what time is it?" He turned away from her and gawked when he saw that it was already mid-afternoon according to the chronometer on the wall. "Why didn't anyone wake me up?"

"You're jet-lagged," Fara told him. "My biological clock got me up shortly after Crimson apparently found you in your parent's room. Yeah, he told me about that."

Star reached his paws up to rub at his eyes. "So what's the other surprise?" He asked, changing the subject back to whatever it was that she was hiding.

"You'll have to come and see," Fara told him. "I wanted to test out the Arwing to make sure that it was combat ready. But a circumstance of chance offered me an opportunity I couldn't refuse. I called fate's bluff and it paid off. I'm not normally a gambling woman but if I lived as conservatively as I had in my past, I wouldn't have been caught off guard and nearly killed… I also wouldn't have walked away from the chance to reconcile things with my first true love."

"I see," Star said softly. "So you decided to live a little?"

Fara touched her paw to the backside of his paw which was still pressed against his cheek where she had kissed him a few moments earlier. "I discovered that if you don't take at least one or two chances in your life… if you don't swing the bat, then life will pass you by and you're not really living life to the fullest. I don't have him anymore but that doesn't mean I don't have a future… especially since I still have the body and heart of a woman half my age."

"All right, show me whatever it is that you're so proud of," Star said, sliding out of bed. Her paw fell away from his and he reached for pants sitting over the backrest of a nearby chair. Wearing only his undergarments, the cotton boxers were half-riding up his left thigh. His tail needed to be brushed and the left side of his head-fur resembled what it might look like if a chicken's butt exploded. The cowlick behind his ear caused Fara to giggle slightly but her eyes naturally fell upon the firm build of his abs.

She was, after all, a woman and he was a man. It was only natural to look and so she did. She quickly noted that Star was watching her eyes and so, in an almost playfully defensive explanation, she said, "Instincts make us who we are. You won't need the pants, we're not leaving GreatFox."

"Oh," Star said flatly. He then cast her a smile, tossed the pants across his bed and began to follow her to the bedroom door. They walked down the hallway together and before long, they wound up in the flight hanger. Almost immediately, the vulpine pilot's eyes widened. There were now three fighters, an Arwing and two slightly modified, black and blue painted fighters that the military had used to replace the original Arwing Model. The SFX2 and two DSFX Arwings sat majestically in the center of the deck.

All three ships were dripping dry from a recent 'bath'. A bucket sat adjacent to the silver one indigenous to GreatFox's hanger deck, with a long plastic pole sticking upwards. Inside the bucket, soapy water and a submerged brush hinted to the explanation behind all three ships having shiny hulls. A half-coiled hose was resting on the deck beneath the blue DSFX Arwing. Fara radiated with pride and Star could only ask, "How?"

"Like I said," Fara mused, repeating herself from earlier, "It was chance and I decided to cash in on what I thought to be a win-win situation." Suddenly her mental defenses dropped and Star could read her like an open book.

"You raced two mercenaries, title-for-title?" Star asked; the shock was evident in his voice. He wasn't sure if he was exasperated or proudly impressed. "How did you know you could win? These may be old models of Arwing but look at the illegal modifications on the engines and G-Diffuser manifold!"

Fara folded her arms with a satisfied smirk tugging at the corner of her muzzle. She looked like a well-fed devil with a metaphorical twinkle gleaming in her eyes. Finally, she told him, "I used to be a flight instructor. I know the first two generations of Military Arwing like the back of my paw. I also know their limitations in handling so I mapped out a race course around several buoys out in the main channel, near Sector Z. I mapped out a course that would display the superiority of the Silver Arwing's maneuverability, even though the two modified fighters were slightly faster as far as Top Speed was concerned. Turning was wider, acceleration was slower and I gave those pilots a run for their money."

"I can't believe you won us two ships," McCloud said, gazing over the other two fighters that sat majestically upon the flight deck in the dim amber bay lighting. "Did they give you any trouble about handing the fighters over?"

"We all had to sign up with a moderator," Fara said. "There was gambling and a collection pot of cash for the winner. I won 14,000 credits because no one bet on me. However, I gave each of the losing pilots seven thousand a piece, towards buying a new ship… that way there would be no hard feelings involved. Not that Seven Thousand Credits would buy an Arwing but it would be a healthy down payment on a new one." The vixen reached over to fluff Star's headfur which was in desperate need of brushing.

"Crimson scolded me for endangering your only Arwing but if this ship didn't survive the crash landing or you guys didn't know how to repair two engine couplings, it would have been useless to you two, anyhow. Like I said, I saw a win-win situation and I've learned to live life a little more after losing everything to my old weakness."

"You never had a lack of courage," Star told her after sensing her underlying thoughts and feelings on the entire situation. "You had a lack of will to put yourself out on a limb because you didn't want to lose face. Your refusal to try was sometimes out of fear of rejection or loss. You were conservative. It's not necessarily a weakness," He explained.

"I've been rewarded more for my change in heart," Fara replied plainly. Her matter-of-fact tone suggested that she was in full reform but her aura suggested that she simply broadened her horizons. "If I take the path of challenge, the rewards are sometimes greater. If I refuse to put myself out on the line, I'm not going to be handed a better life because I'm not working to make my life better. I still believe in the Cornerian sentiment of putting the people first and personal advances second, but not as intensely as I once did."

"We live and learn," Star agreed.

Fara shook her head slowly. "But the problem was I used to back off and not risk things for my personal happiness. I wasn't living and I wasn't learning." She glanced up at the two other ships as if they were trophies then she smiled. "I took a risk when I woke up from my state of suspended animation. That risk was because I thought I had nothing else to lose. It wound up earning me something I rightfully deserved and it opened my eyes."

Fara, whose mental defense had diminished now that she was no longer holding a secret concerning the two new ships, was now out and open. Star could practically read her every thought at this point. Her statement referred to stepping up to legally claim her inheritance and half of Phoenix Enterprises. Had she not tried to risk everything she had in a court, she wouldn't have been rewarded with the earnings of her father's hard work. Star wasn't sure if he passed away or if he was simply retired and too old to belong to the business. He wasn't about to ask, either. It wasn't a topic that was on her mind at the moment and he wasn't sure if it was a sensitive issue or not.

She suddenly turned towards McCloud, placed a manicured digit against the waistband of the fox's boxers. "You need to get cleaned up and dressed. We should head to Venom soon. Go take a shower and I'll put your clothes into the laundry. They should be ready by the time you're out. Something tells me that whatever clothes you have in your room won't fit anymore."

"Yeah, I've kinda outgrown my teenage wardrobe," McCloud conceded with a slight shrug. "I'll take care of it. You go and clean up, too."

"We can't at the same time," Fara said. "The shower controls and the environment controls for the personal quarters… they're acting strange. The only place to shower is the public de-tox shower, over there," She explained, pointing to the door at the other end of the flight hanger. That shower was designed for pilots who returned from missions covered in mud or other substances, should they wind up doing a ground mission.

It was a simple shower room, much like a high school locker room. It was round, tiled and had approximately 6 shower poles with plain 'hot' and 'cold' knob controls. There were lockers against the far wall, away from the showering section. Occasionally one would find a grated drain in the floor for water drainage. The water controls had their own water heater system with a simplistic design. For the time being, it made this shower the only useful place to bathe on GreatFox II until the secondary environmental controls were repaired.

"I have to shower in public?" Star almost chuckled, wishing this was a joke. "With the rest of the team like military grunts or sports team jocks?"

"That's the idea," Fara said, chiding him. "What's the matter, McCloud? Afraid someone will look at your tail?" She joshed, playfully. "Be lucky this ship has a locker room shower. Most ships don't and then we'd all be dirty."

"You've used it?" McCloud asked? He immediately sensed the answer then realized that the inquiry wasn't necessary but Fara answered anyway, acting as though she were stating the obvious.

"That's how I know it works, yes," She told him. "You were both asleep; what was I worried about? You know some cultures still have public bathhouses. What's the fuss? Go get cleaned up, pilot. Go on, hit the showers, McCloud."

McCloud cast a grin in her direction. He was amused by the way she spoke to him as if he was the grunt and she was the team captain. "Lady's first. Besides, I thought you said Crimson was getting cleaned up, first? That would mean he's in that room."

"Do you sense him in there?" Fara asked, quirking a brow. "No, seriously, he's already finished. He was grooming, or whatever it is that you men do with a razor in the mirror of your own room."

"I'm going to check on Tricky, make a personal log recording and get my clothes together. I'll take a shower when you're finished," He insisted. Fara simply shrugged and then nodded. "If you were up so early, why are you still wearing a nightgown?"

Fara cast a dubious gaze at the younger fox then said, "My clothes are in the laundry. They should be ready at any moment. Don't be so stubborn. Anyhow, go take care of your laundry. I'll go get mine out of the dryer then clean up. I'm just itching to head to Venom, I guess."

Star probed her mind again, relaxing his body and opening his mind. This was Fara's first time risking her life of her own will. If she was at war before, it was at the orders of a superior. From taking more risks in life, she was looking at this attack on a Venom City as a huge stepping stone in her attempt at bettering herself. Whether or not she really _was_ bettering herself, she didn't know. All she knew is that applying herself to personal risks seemed to draw greater personal rewards. Now, here she was, about to attack a mega metropolitan city for a simple belief.

Star, suddenly feeling quite empathetic, placed his paw against her cheek and leaned forward. His muzzle brushed against the fennec's ears. A subtle whisper of breath caused her to shiver but she listened intently, nevertheless. "You're helping us for the right reason; Andrew Oikonny's capture will make Lylat a better place. I understand that this is a big step for you. I appreciate your help." To his words, Fara slipped an arm around him and offered a hug.

"Thanks," She whispered in return. "Sometimes it's good to find confirmation in what you're doing." She then placed her free paw against his chest and used it to place a bit of distance between their bodies. Strangely, however, his proximity didn't seem to invade her personal space. In a stronger tone of voice, she added, "I guess I'll hit the showers first. I suppose you have phone calls to make."

"Yeah, Violet and Bill," McCloud replied with a nod. "Let me know when the shower is free. I'll be in my room." He turned away from her and headed for the double doors at the far end of the hanger. Fara turned about, her nightgown seeming to flow around her. She made her way to the shower, heading in the opposite direction.

* * *

**Bill Gray wasn't home** and yet the video footage automatically answered. It took a moment for the old communicator to auto-focus on a piece of actual paper that was posted directly in front of the lens. Star played with the resolution of the video receiver monitor until the lettering became clear then he quickly read the letter. Turning away from the communicator in the wall, he flipped on the Holo-vid and immediately balked at the news coverage that was on nearly every channel.

Corneria's main military headquarters was bombed and a four-star and five-star General were confirmed as dead. Also, three military personnel and a postal courier were all listed as casualties. The news channel listed the names of both Generals but didn't confirm the names of the other four victims just yet. McCloud felt as though he was punched in the chest.

A small box opened up at the bottom of the holographic display and the main image shrunk into that box. The large image of the firefighters trying to put out the blaze was replaced with what appeared to be a press report. To McCloud's surprise, Bill Gray was standing next to a three-star General at the podium.

A clock at the bottom of the floating picture showed the Cornerian Capitol City time, 12:00 noon. The man spoke for a few moments and his name appeared beneath the podium, adjacent to the clock. 'Ling Foster' was the man's name and by the looks of his uniform, he was in the building during the bombing. There was soot covering his military dress jacket and Star could sense the very slightest sensation of confusion and worry emanating from the man floating above the Holo-emitter.

After a moment, Bill Gray was directed to approach the podium. A close-up shot of Bill showed him from the shoulders up. His mostly-detached head floated above the holographic video emitter with his name in white lettering across his chest, next to the time.

"I'm William Gray. Some of you may remember me as the half-breed Greyhound and Husky mix that piloted two units over Katina during the Great Lylat War. I guess that makes me an old Vet. Since General Peppy Hare retired, Lylat has seen nothing but peace. Even General Chester Bennington rose through the ranks without ever experiencing direct combat in his time with the Military. He was a recruit during the Aparoid attack. He was on a research mission when Corneria was next attacked in General Hare's time. General Foster, here, wanted a combat-wise replacement as he feels this bombing may only be the beginning of something larger to come. To ensure the safety of Corneria, Ling Foster and the Senate have approved my transition from Retired Major to Acting Five-Star General of the Cornerian Military."

Bill paused, placing his paws on the podium to the left and right of the microphone. Finally, he continued speaking. "It is with great regret that I inform you all of the truth. Not only are General's Bennington and Jeremy Rover both dead but the bomb was from Andrew Oikonny of the defunct Oikonny Empire. I have no further information at this time. However, it is _my_ understanding that a group of Mercenaries, flying with the StarFox Codename, is already hot on his tracks. They've chased him off of Sauria and Corneria's Intelligence Team, CIT, verifies that he's currently hiding on Venom. I have full confidence in the new StarFox team to track him down and bring him to justice. I also have plans to mobilize Corneria's military and set up a tactical defense perimeter. I assure you, Corneria will be safe from any further attacks. I'll answer questions at a future Media Conference. Until that time, I have no further information."

The crowded chorus of news reporters trying to speak over one another could be heard through the microphone on the front of the podium. The cacophony of shouting faded out and the image dimmed. The box in the lower left-hand side still showed the replay footage of the Fire Department trying to fight the blaze at Corneria's Military Headquarters. The main image began to replay from where Ling Foster was behind the podium, looping through the footage of the short conference.

After a moment, Star finally found the ability to tear his eyes away from the holo-vid. He shut the emitter off and turned back to the personal communicator built into the wall above his bed. He dialed the frequency for Violet Lombardi, remembering the number by heart. For some strange reason, he felt relief when she answered.

"Star?" She asked, as if in disbelief once she saw his face on the other end of the line. She reached out to place her fingers on the monitor so that it looked like she was reaching off to the left. Her fingers traced his face for a moment then she smiled. "I didn't think you'd call."

"You know what they say: Things change; hopefully for the better, right?" He replied. "It's good to see you, Violet."

"Have you seen the news?" She asked. "Someone is going after the guy responsible, using our parent's mercenary team name."

"That would be me," Star confessed. Violet raised her brows, blinking at him for a moment. "It's true. Crimson and I took a job on Sauria. As it turns out, this jerk related to the man who killed our parents, was creating havoc on Saurian Colonies. We chased him down but he escaped to Venom. But guess what!"

Violet blinked at his sudden change of tone. "…What?"

"We found it! We found GreatFox II! I'm calling you from it right now!" Star exclaimed. "It flies! Even ROB still functions! We also have fighters, so we're chasing Andrew. A reliable source has told me that he's hiding out in the Capitol City of Shray-Lek on Venom."

"Dammit, Star," Violet scolded, "You're going to get yourself killed without a full team!" She glanced away from the monitor so that McCloud could see the side of her head. She then muttered softly to herself. "My mother always said I was going to wind up going back to you, somehow. Sometimes I wonder what I see in you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" McCloud asked, nearly gawking at her. She turned back to the camera, looking the lens over as if studying it. It made Star feel as though she was looking through it and staring directly into his eyes. It was creepy how she could give him 'the look' even by subspace video. "What?" He asked, blinking.

"When is the assault?" She demanded, folding her arms across her rather voluptuous chest. Star found his eyes dip for just the briefest moment.

"After I shower, to put it bluntly," McCloud told her. "We have another teammate although I'm not sure if she's temporary or permanent."

"She?" Violet tilted her head, looking curious. The lush purple fur of her face was framed by the silvery locks of her bangs. Those snowy tendrils even went so far as to partially obscure her left eye. Twin amethyst ears were perched upon her head, peaking up through that bundle of white. A matching mauve triangle, pointed downwards was the half-feline's nose. It twitched with irritation.

"A friend of my father's youth," Star replied. "She's a year older than dad but a combat vet and ex-flight instructor. We crossed paths on Sauria while looking for Oikonny."

"So why in the hell are you calling?" Violet suddenly snapped. "Do you know how awkward it is to see you again?"

"I love you, dammit," Star barked defensively. "Do you even realize that?"

"Oh yeah? And here I thought you were dating Crimson O'Donnell!" She retorted spontaneously.

"I'm sorry I took sides with him and disagreed with you, but I call it the way I see it," Star shouted. "And if you don't like that I'm brutally honest, that's too bad because I can't help who I love!"

"You're taking a tone with me," She pointed out, narrowing her eyes. "I'm willing to put my differences with you aside. This is about something our fathers believed in. Your stupid idea of reviving a Mercenary team without a mechanic, born from the best ace-pilots in Lylat has no merit. So, I'll be there to bail your ass out of trouble as soon as the civilian flight restriction ends. NO one can launch from Corneria right now."

Star lifted his right paw, which had a swirl of dark blue and brown on the pads of his palm. "I'll take care of that. As soon as permission is granted to you, I want you to pack your things and leave right away."

"And how the hell do you plan to retract a planet-wide Government decision for me?" Violet demanded. "You're full of shit and see the world through rose-colored glasses sometimes," She groused, unfolding and re-folding her arms.

"I thought you said you watched the news," Star chided with a hint of challenge in his voice.

"Duh," She retorted. "How do you think I knew that StarFox was involved?"

Star tilted his head, glaring at her through the camera built into the wall directly above his communicator monitor. "My roommate is the acting General, Violet. Get your things ready. I want your help. However, we're still beginning our initial run to gather intelligence before you arrive."

"Stupid men," Violet replied, immediately closing the channel. Star could only smile once the screen went dark. He covered his nose with his paws for a moment, simply contemplating his invitation to her. After taking a moment to clear his head, he punched in the number for Bill Gray's personal communicator.

The screen was filled with numbers, showing what subspace network and which interplanetary routing sequence was used. It then showed which cellular grid was accessed for security access. After another moment, the communicator began to ring. To McCloud's surprise, he answered almost instantly.

"Bill! I got your message and saw you on TV. You're really going to be the General?" McCloud asked, shaking his head just slightly.

"Yeah," Gray said, with a slight shrug. "What irony, huh? After having that conversation before you left to hook up with Wolf's little brat, it seems like the punch-line to some sort of joke. Are you guys still going after Oikonny?"

"Yes, we're going to chase him to Venom," Star explained. "I need a personal favor from you as General."

"I've already thrown your team's name out there," Bill grumbled. "What more do you want? I put fear into Andrew, who's undoubtedly watching the coverage… I help you out and it buys me time to install a defense perimeter. But isn't that a favor enough?"

The vulpine shrugged back, feeling as goofy as could be, asking for such a personal favor. "My team needs an engineer as good as Slippy Toad, who can fly as good as her mother and father," McCloud told him, trailing off at the end and offering a lopsided smile.

"I thought you two weren't talking to one another?" Gray cried incredulously.

"I need…" Star paused then rephrased his statement. "The _team_ needs her. And there's no 'I' in team if we're to survive."

"There may not be an 'I', but there _is_ a 'me'," Bill replied, still looking skeptical.

"Only if you read from right to left," Star replied, reaching his paws up to sift through the un-beaded tendrils of cobalt. "I'm serious, this time. Can you help us? Just give her clearance to meet us. She'll fly off of Corneria and there won't be any issues."

"You've got your pilot," Bill conceded. "If you guys get yourselves killed, your Father… _and_ your Grandfather's team name will be worthless and sullied. Don't screw up, Star."

McCloud winced as if he'd just been punched in the stomach. "Don't call me that, General _Billy_." He glanced back up at William Gray who, to McCloud's dismay, seemed unfazed by the nickname. "All right, we'll be careful. Thanks for believing in me enough to give us a chance."

The new General lowered his head, gazing up at the communicator, almost surreptitiously. "All you're going to do is chase Andrew Oikonny out of his hiding spot. Corneria Intelligence will get a trace on him and we'll bring him to justice. We'll do it with trained professionals who are paid and trained to fight wars."

"This is in my blood. It's something I have to do," Star replied. "At any rate, thanks for giving me this chance. I plan to use it to find Oikonny and _bring_ him _to_ you. If we fail, you always have your plan-B. Thanks for letting Violet fly. I owe you, somehow."

Bill tilted his head. "It's a good thing your father was a good friend of mine. You rarely do what you're told because you have no real discipline. You couldn't even keep the den clean when I asked you to straighten up. Don't get in the military's way, Star. Please, just do as I ask this once?"

"I _have_ to catch Andrew. I'm close and I'll bring him in," McCloud said, closing his right paw into a fist. "I'll do what it takes, no one will get in my way. Andrew Oikonny _will_ pay and I'll be the one dispensing the punishment. You know I can fly; I plan to dole out some serious ass kicking, Bill. Have the military stay out of my way until the dust clears."

Bill, growing exasperated, cut Star off with a quick, "Hey!" He shook his head rapidly then added, "See if I help _you_ again. I hope your pilot is ready to fly. Gray – out." The communication ended abruptly.

"Well you certainly pissed off the only General willing to help this team out," Came a voice from behind. Star was so deeply engrossed in the conversation that he failed to notice Fara Phoenix enter the room.

"Yeah, Star. Give it a rest," Crimson added, also having stepped into the room at some point. "You guys butted heads as roommates but now he's a General and you're a Mercenary. Remember to extend professional courtesy."

Star turned about, first narrowing his eyes at Crimson over using his first name but then his eyes softened and his clinched paw relaxed. Up until now, he didn't even realize he had still been making a fist with his right paw. He realized that he was getting caught up in the moment and that's when he realized he still had a lot of maturing to do. Finally the fox sighed and nodded to them both. "You're right… both of you. This vendetta against the Oikonny family is getting personal and sometimes I let my temper flair up."

"Your father had that same problem," Fara said. "He could remain graceful and collected; a real renascence fox… until he was put into a conversation about Andross. He let the Oikonny family push his buttons and that's the only time his temper ever flared up."

Star blinked at her, as if he was confused by her words. "My father had a temper? That doesn't even seem possible. He and my mother were the least confrontational people I knew."

"Not always," Came a forth voice. McCloud's eyes reverted to the doorway where Tricky now stood. Star was starting to realize that his temper sometimes distracted his telepathic abilities and it was starting to annoy him as he rarely allowed for someone to sneak up on him.

"Go on," McCloud prodded, folding his arms.

"I've seen him get frustrated," Tricky told them. "If you mentioned something awkward for him to talk about or if you asked a lot from him without paying him for the favors, he would sometimes get nasty. More than once he would scold me for trying to help him. You're a lot like him."

"Yeah, but without the discipline Fox McCloud learned in his time at the flight academy," Fara added. "Face it, sweetheart. You're just like your father but without the maturity garnished by experience or time in the Flight Academy. But you have the potential to be a great leader if you open your heart and listen to your friends."

Star opened his muzzle to say something but couldn't find his voice. He felt humbled to some extent and wondered if that was what growing up felt like. Finally, because his jaw was still hanging wide open, he decided to push out the first words that came to his mind. "I sense that you all still believe in me, even though you're not in full agreement of my methods. I implore you to help be become a better team leader, which will help me evolve into a better pilot. Is that what you want me to say?"

"Those are bold words," Fara told him. "But do you mean it?"

"Yeah, I guess," McCloud replied flatly. "I just want to … I'm obsessed with Andross and his freakin' nephew. I can't help it. I want to prove to Bill that we can handle ourselves so he'll call on us, confident we can survive anything… that way when Andross surfaces, he'll dispatch us to fight instead of giving the glory to some idiot Military Pilot who doesn't know what he's fighting for."

"Star," This time it was Fara to use the name. He winced but she continued to speak, ignoring his reaction. "In order to succeed against a scientific genius like Andross Oikonny, you have to be at your best. Being impulsive will get you killed and the glory will undoubtedly go to someone else."

"Like me," Crimson cut in, grinning. "If you get your tail handed to you, it'll be up to me to defeat Andross. Then I'll be a legend and you'll be road kill."

"You wish!" Star shouted, hopping off the bed and quickly flinging a pillow at his best friend. Crimson took the full brunt of the down pillow, stumbling backwards with a chuckle.

Fara stifled her own laughter then said, "Go get ready, so we can storm Venom. If you stink, you won't be able to sneak up on the bad guys. Let's go!" In that moment, Star could sense that she made up her mind to stay apart of this team. For some reason, the boys felt like home to her. She wasn't sure why but Star simply smiled once he realized she made her decision. The vulpine gave a nod then walked out of his bedroom and headed for the flight deck to shower. He had a lot on his mind and now he really did have a team, like his father and grandfather.

* * *

**GreatFox II was given the green light** for departure. The expensive repairs would have cost a fortune but because the new General of Corneria mentioned them by name on the news, the head mechanic on the Area6 Perimeter Base decided to bill the team later. It was exciting news on behalf of the team but Fara, feeling responsible, still put at least half of the bill on charge, up front.

The ship began to pull from the bay, tractored out, slowly, by several small tugboat-like tractor bots. For the dramatic display of GreatFox's withdraw from the rundown Star Base, the ship was far less than glorious to behold. Its port hull was a patchwork job with various shades of metal that covered a hull breech. Dirty, rustic, bucolic, covered with the dirt of disuse, GreatFox looked like a Junker floating from the large dry-dock bay.

The large quad-fins passed from the dry-dock section until even the main booster was free of the large warehouse-like dock. The large plasma propulsion system was finally free, and once clear, GreatFox began to pick up momentum. With a very large I.O.U. to pay, the team was free to go forward. The ship's course was pointed towards Venom and almost immediately it began to quicken its pace until the engine was warmed up and ready to make a jump across Area6.

Passing through the emerald ribbon that wavered with only a measure of inconsistency in the aging jump gate, GreatFox II began a stretch that spanned a section of Lylat. Slipping beneath the linier strand of time-space, the Sector-Z Jump Gate caused the dreadnaught class vessel to simultaneously begin and end in two different points of space.

The curvaceous nature of a linier, straight line was where point A to point B in normal time-space was like an invisible stretch of yarn strewn across a table. The Quantum Mechanics behind the Lylat Jump Gate allowed for the yarn-like fabric of normal time-space to be brought end to end, so that point A and point B coexisted at the same time in the same place for only a brief moment.

As GreatFox sank into the depths of the gate, it simultaneously arrived at the other end, achieving its destination instantaneously. The Venom Orbital Jump Gate hovered above the Venom Atmosphere, maintaining a satellite position in a sustained orbit pattern.

Within its bridge, all the members of the team were standing ready. ROB brought up the surface view, depicting at a resolution of 1080p in high resolution. Grainy surface images depicted high speed objects such as transportation modules. It seemed that Shray-Lek was a megalopolis beyond words however, the surrounding geography was barren and dead.

To the west end of the city was the Old Capitol. Abandoned industrial complexes and empty slums were left to rot with the fall of the Oikonny Empire from the Lylat War era. Scanners confirmed that the entire sector was dead. Only a few scavenging souls wondered those streets, but there was no food or water in those sections, leaving them worthless to even the most destitute of citizens.

To the east end of the city, just beyond the rocks and barren plains, was another city. It wasn't nearly as large but seemed equally as prosperous. Star approached the main view screen, trailing his finger over the larger city. He finally tapped the wall monitor in the deserted west end.

"This section is a derelict. We should set down here," He told them. Fara approached, looking the area over then she nodded in approval.

Fara turned to Crimson and Tricky, saying, "The dilapidated ruins would provide the cover we need for our ships. We can store them within the ramshackle industrial complexes. I located camouflage tarp in the GreatFox hold and there are enough for five fighters. That gives us ample material and I suggest we make use of it. However, it's a fair hike to the new Capitol borders, so we'll need water and supplies for the trip."

"Should I go for transportation?" Tricky asked. "I can make the run in a shorter time without wearing myself out. How about it, huh?"

"With McCloud's permission, I have a better idea," Fara mused, tapping her chin with a well-manicured fingertip. Star nodded and so she continued, explaining, "I think we _should_ take Tricky but only as a guard to the Arwings. He'll need a communicator on his collar; if one of us becomes injured, he can come in to transport that person out. Just having him there as a 'plan B' could be paramount to our success."

"I suppose it's better than him being a useless extra mouth to feed, sitting on GreatFox," Star replied.

"Hey!" Tricky quickly argued but McCloud simply put a paw up. Tricky cocked his head, waiting for an explanation.

"What I mean to say is," Star began, looking for the right words to say. "It's going to be a boring job. Guard duty sucks, man. But it's better than being stagnant on a ship, watching us do all the work. However, if you do wind up being called on to trek into the main part of the city and pick us up, I want you to be smart. These lizards are a bit higher strung than the SharpClaw tribe. These people walk around with personal blasters in their pocketbooks."

"I'm the _king_ of the EarthWalker tribe," Tricky protested. "And I'm older than you, so trust me when I tell you that I think I can handle myself. Harsh climate doesn't faze me, I've walked the coldest and hottest that Sauria has to offer."

"Stop getting defensive," Star replied quickly. "You're going, just stay sharp. I don't want you getting injured, all right?"

"Cool!" Tricky's reply caused Crimson, Fara and Star to roll their eyes. Conversely, their reaction caused Tricky to blink in shock. "What? What're you all standing around here, rolling your eyes about? Let's get this thing done!"

"Very well," Fara said, turning back to Star and Crimson. "Listen boys, if things get crazy, I'll give orders to keep us alive. No macho egos, understand? I'm a grown woman, not a babysitter. If I suddenly start telling you both what to do, don't question just act. I want to know that my snap decisions will keep you alive and if I say duck and you don't, you'll find yourself dead real quick. But I'm going to give control of the team to Star today because he's the one trying to earn this position."

"I think I can manage that, what about you, Red?" Star asked, turning to his best friend. Crimson nodded then hooked a thumb back at the double doors at the back of the bridge.

"I'm ready to find this loser. Let's rock," O'Donnell exclaimed.

* * *

**The Arwing trio maintained a Delta Formation** all the way into the lower atmosphere. Once the city was in full view, they altered course, following McCloud towards the abandoned industrial section. A large crate was attached to McCloud's Arwing, the silver one that belonged to him when he was a teenager, living on GreatFox II. Within the crate which was flush to the ship's belly, was King Tricky, the Saurian annoyance.

Over a secured channel, Star groused to the other two pilots. "I can't believe we're bringing a dinosaur to Venom. Why did I agree to this?"

"Because he's solid brute strength," Fara replied over the communicator, adding, "He's also a good mode of transportation out of the city and will act as a deterrent to any itinerant lizards in that section. I don't trust the vagrants, no matter how destitute."

Crimson cut into the channel and said, "I don't think the vagabonds will give a damn about our ships if they can't see them." He then offered supplementary dialogue, explaining, "We have the ability to lock the ships and arm them with emergency failsafe alarms, rendering them into further uselessness and who wants scrap parts of a ship that they have to carry back across the city? They could easily strip down the Industrial Complex if they wanted scrap metal."

"Anyone who would mess with our gear?" Fara sounded skeptical shaking her head. "Listen boys, if Andrew Oikonny has clout here, he could send a patrol to pick up our ship, should our gear be located. Having Tricky on duty will give us a transponder signal back to home base, a communications link to home base and is insurance if we're in trouble. I wouldn't want to be the lizards on the receiving end of a charging dinosaur. It's the smartest plan-B that we have available to us."

"She's the vet," Star said with a sigh. "I want to set down and set up camp in the closest possible location. Time is money and if that son of a bitch _did_ bomb Corneria, he knows he should be hiding right now. The longer it takes, the better he'll be hidden. We've got to hurry."

"Agreed," came the reply of both Fara and Crimson in unison. Fara then added, "Just pick a factory; they're all tantamount as far as I'm concerned."

"Roger," Star said. "Let's not counter one another; I want to try and make sure we agree on all of our decisions, together."

"Just remember," Fara said, almost preening over the communicator. "Women are always right."

McCloud rolled his eyes, remembering times when he would butt heads with Violet. "Except when they make irrational decisions during an overly-emotional state," Star retorted. "Sorry, that wasn't directed at you, Miss Phoenix."

"Just Fara is fine," the fennec repeated her line from the previous day. "We're getting close, find us a building," She told him. McCloud was quick to respond by rolling over and dipping away from the group. Fara and Crimson followed and the ensemble was quick to fly into the old city ruins. They flew low over the main highways of the desecrated sector. A large building caught McCloud's eye and he eased into the flight yolk.

The Arwing darted into a large industrial complex then he slammed on the brakes, hovering directly above the ground for a moment. Lowering his landing tracks, the Arwing eased downwards, sitting atop of the crate with its landing tracks hovering about a centimeter above the cracked concrete flooring.

Fara and Crimson landed their craft as well and each canopy opened, one after the other. Fara dismounted from the black Arwing, sliding down the side of the hull and landing on her heels. A small cloud of dust rose up to meet her feet, swirling around her ankles. She wore a silver duster that extended to her ankles, loaded down with weapons from the GreatFox Armory.

Crimson slid from his fighter, the blue painted ship. He opened the cargo compartment directly beneath the cockpit and pulled out three of the Camouflage Tarps, and unrolling them. The light-refracting mirrored cloth gave the illusion of invisibility from over ten feet away to the naked eye. Each plane was covered and Tricky was released from the crate.

Once base was established, the three pilots set out across the city ruins, heading east. The megalopolis sat majestically on the horizon, towering over the old-city ruins. It would be a three hour walk at best and the team remained fairly quiet during that trek. Once they reached the boundary walls, the team took to the sewers, heading into the Capitol underground.

Once they were in Shray-Lek, Star found the nearest ladder and ascended it. Pushing a manhole cover off, he peered out through the gap between the round steel cover and the street. Occasionally a vehicle would pass overhead. Once the lane seemed clear, he shoved the manhole lid the rest of the way onto the street and began to climb up, into the lane. He reached down to take Fara's paw and helped her out, then did the same for Crimson.

The triage crossed the lane just in time for the traffic signal to give way. The street became a busy set of lanes again. They received odd looks from residents but no one seemed to bother them in any way. The group headed towards the Central District, where the Venomian Capitol Building was located.

Occasionally, they would pass a lizard on the corner holding a large sign over his or her chest. From what Star could sense, there was some sort of animosity in the air. Scores of lizards felt one way about something McCloud didn't understand while at least the other half of the residents felt completely opposite.

"There's an awfully great deal of tension in the air," McCloud told his team. "It's not from us; it's from something far bigger than we can comprehend." He then changed the subject, adding, "Let's head to a bank and get a currency conversion. We can cover more ground if we take the mass transit into the center of the city."

"We're armed to the teeth," Fara objected. "Heading into a bank with all these weapons will attract unwanted attention. Crimson and I will wait outside if you want to go inside of one. Don't you speak multiple languages?"

"I use telepathy to learn the vocabulary, then speak it back to them," McCloud replied. "My mother had that ability. You'll have to hold my gear."

"Obviously," Crimson said, flatly. "I can't read Venom language, so which one of these places is a bank?"

"I'll ask," McCloud said. He turned to the closest pedestrian and asked in a broken Venom Language about the local bank, where he could have money converted. The man lifted a scaly hand and pointed at a building at the end of the block. Star offered a statement to express his appreciation and gratitude, then led his coterie towards the building that was pointed out.

The team stopped directly in front of the building and Star began to disarm, handing over his gear to Fara. Suddenly the sky above them dimmed to a dark shade and the sunlight of SOLAR was blocked from the sky. The three of them gave pause, glancing up to see what was going on. Star could sense panic emanating from lizards all around them. Most everyone in sight began to run for cover.

"Something really bad is about to happen," McCloud said to the other two pilots. "Everyone is suddenly panicked. I don't know what's going on but I suddenly don't wish to find out."

O'Donnell squinted his eyes, looking up at the darkened sun. "What in the blue blazes?" Without further notice, he added, "It's not an eclipse, it's a warship!" He then turned to Fara, grabbed McCloud's gear and shoved it into the fox's paws. "That's a war bomber! Let's take shelter!"

"You recognize it how?" Star cried, quickly reattaching his gear. Before Crimson could answer, Star already sensed the answer. As a young boy, his father still had a few business ties to Venom. Crimson saw warship bombers only because he was exposed to them. Suddenly the outline of the ship became clear against the sunny background. Bay doors swung open and tiny round object began to fall from the sky like flakes of lethal snow.

A deep rumbling sensation was felt through their feet long before the blast of sound could be heard in the distance. The first bombs were crashing to the extra terrestrial surface. All three pilots exchanged glances, each with wide eyes. Fara and Crimson then turned to Star. McCloud glanced around then turned back to them, shaking his head. "I sense that some people are ready for this and have been expecting it."

"What the hell is going on?" Crimson demanded.

"I had no idea that this would be happening," Star said, almost defensively.

"What's happening, McCloud?" Fara asked.

"It's the lizards," Star muttered, shaking his head. "Some of this revolves around Oikonny and political failure."

"What the hell is about to happen?" Crimson snapped, closing both of his paws into fists.

"The first failed negotiations," Said McCloud, sensing that thought from one of the lizards inside the bank. "It's beginning," he added, interpreting thoughts that he was hearing from the same source inside the bank.

"What is it?" Crimson shouted, placing his fists on Star's shoulders, looking his friend straight in the eye.

Star face-faulted and his muzzle dropped. "I had no idea this was going to happen today. I swear, Red. We can't be here. Andrew has a lot of nerve…"

Crimson cleared his throat then, in a calm voice, asked, "What did we just walk into?"

McCloud's eyes panned to the left, stealing a quick glance at Fara before looking back, straight into the eyes of his best friend. Star drew out the words slowly, as if in shock. "Today is A-Day. Day one; the first minutes of the first day… Since Andrew arrived, it took only 24 hours for Venom to plunge into complete and total…. Civil War."

* * *

A/N: _So I had this chapter halfway finished, completely different but… I was hating it! Sorry about not having all the action. You're about to, though! XD Bombs are falling over Venom! Ahh!" _


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: _Chapter 9! Neat! Nothing else to report at this time! XD

* * *

_

Chapter -9-

**Missiles slammed to the ground, **creating a shockwave from the concussive force. The explosion of each one was enough to level a building. McCloud, O'Donnell and Miss Phoenix stood in an intersection as missiles fell like rain about them, landing several blocks away. Each missile hit a civilian target, such as a building or tramline car.

Fara clinched her paws instinctively then asked, "What's the plan here?" Her ears flinched with every volatile noise in the background. The girlishly capricious tone was gone from her voice as Fara Phoenix was now the embodiment of '_all business._'

The bank, located behind the trio, had large glass doors on the front of the building, surrounded by lovely glass windows. McCloud sensed a sudden panic from behind the team and so he glanced over his shoulders. A crack was making its way down the front of the largest section of window on the front of the bank building. Without further warning, a rush of heat passed through the area from the nearby missile detonations.

Before another moment could pass, the combination of the heat and the cracking windows caused the glass to spit forth, bursting outwards to release the cooler air, which was expelled away from the bank. McCloud instinctively threw his arms outwards, performing a double clothesline against the upper shoulders of both Fara and Crimson. Bowling over his teammates, they were brought to the ground with his body half-covering theirs.

Glass shards sprayed outwards, strewn across their backs. Everything _felt_ as though it was happening so _very quickly_ and yet in that instant, Star glanced upwards to survey the missile attacks only to notice the _opposite_;everything was happening slowly: The cascading glass remains floated through the air about their bodies. Silvery debris fell from the sky, surrounding them. Light refracted off of each individual piece, causing a graceful appearance of beauty.

Ethereal and slow, the glass fell about them, twinkling softly in the glow of the sun. Time exploded forwards once more when McCloud's eyes were averted by a flash in the near distance. Another explosion occurred and the shockwave caught every fragment of glass while it was still airborne. Luckily for the StarFox Team, these fragmented particles were blown back towards the bank, showering the people within in the lethal rain of shimmering rubble.

Following the burst, a wave of heat could be felt rushing overhead. The eruptive sound of a blast followed next, ringing in their ears. The three pilots lay on the street in front of the bank covered in a light dusting of glass and dirt. McCloud sat up and glanced around for a place which could provide shelter. Only one place came to his mind at the moment… the sewers.

He stood up, beginning to help both O'Donnell and Phoenix to a sitting position. "We've got to hurry back to the…" Before he could finish his sentence, the methane gasses from beneath the streets had erupted from an explosive force, somewhere else in the city. Multiple manhole lids were thrown into the sky in every direction. McCloud watched in silence, stifled into awe. Had he ordered his team into the sewers a moment prior or had they not come up from them before the attack began… they would all be dead.

Another explosion shook him from his reverie, bringing a grim display of reality to the front and center. McCloud began to pick himself the rest of the way up. His fur was tousled and unkempt, littered with glass and dust. Hot air could occasionally be felt on the wind, swirling with the cooler atmosphere. A gust of the warm gale brushed against his face, causing his eyes to sting. Dust and thinner debris was restrictive to breathing and several plumes of thick, billowing smoke were rising above Shray-Lek.

The concentrated air strike continued over the skies of Venom's Capitol. Star took the paws of both of his pilots, tugging for them both to get up. Fara was the first to respond, dazed and dizzy. Her large ears were specially designed to garnish even the most intricate details from a sound and now they served to nearly deafen her from the thunder of missile explosions.

Crimson sat up as well, reaching for his head. Everything seemed to feel fuzzy in a sense. His free paw touched the ground, soaking in the tactile contact. His paw attempted to clutch at the cement while the blurry world around him threatened to steal away even the most palpable. The ambient dissonance was a muddled cacophony of noise that seemed strangely… distant. It was as if they were listening to nothing more than a bass-like rumble through gun muffs at this point. As his vision began to clear, he could see Star shouting at him, almost face to face, but couldn't quite make out the words. Those granule particles of concrete couldn't be grasped, leaving him to press his palm into the ground if only to better clear his head from the dizziness.

Star could sense Crimson's moment of disoriented confusion. He could empathize with the half-breed lupine who was gripping at the ground to stop the world from spinning. Once the dizziness faded, all three of them came to their feet, shaking off the dust and debris. Fara rubbed her muzzle with the backside of her paw, remarking, "An idyllic xanadu this place is _not_. We need to find Andrew Oikonny and making haste wouldn't be such a bad idea."

"Agreed," Crimson added. Star, on the other hand, remained quiet. They advanced on the bank, stepping through the crumbled glass ruins which crunched beneath their boots. Inside, a female lizard with her young was kneeling in a corner, beneath a desk used for signing checks and such. There were several other lizards, mostly men, on the floor, while some of the tellers seemed to be coming up from behind the counters.

Fara knelt down besides one man, taking his left arm into her paws. The lizard seemed to be so dazed that he would have let her do just about anything at that point. She went into her supply pack and pulled out a bandage and some medical tape. After spraying a small canister's liquid contents onto his arm, she began the bandaging process.

Crimson, like Fara, immediately began to attend to a wounded lizard. Star could sense that Crimson felt torn about what he was doing. His thoughts fell to his family and how much they would disapprove of helping the injured. Star felt compelled by his comrades to follow suit and so he found the nearest injured person and knelt down besides them.

The man was a bank guard with a uniform and gun. He was apparently close to the front doors when the glass shattered and so parts of his snout and the side of his head were fairly covered with cuts. Star pulled out a canteen and wet a piece of cloth, wiping the blood away from the man's face. It only took a few minutes to clean the guard's wounds and, for some reason, the guard allowed the vulpine pilot to proceed. McCloud could sense the distrust emanating from the man but the mercenary felt useful and glad for being granted permission to help, regardless.

Outside, missiles were still falling and could be heard in the distance, ripping through the city of Shray-Lek. It didn't take more than a few moments for the city to succumb to the assault and the population's general disposition suggested that they knew they were beaten. Star felt rather bad for them but there was little he could do other than to hunt down Andrew and complete the mission.

The group realized that having Venom currency would be useless now that the public transportation system was decimated. The city was in a state of panic but the overwhelming sensation that McCloud could sense in the air was the desire to simply submit. An older man at the front counter, closest to the tellers was mumbling softly, repeating the same words just loud enough for a sharp ear to hear.

"The first failed negotiations, it's beginning…" The older lizard said this then looked up at Fara who approached him with her own canteen of water. He took the flask, drank only a little bit, then said to her, "The Conference has failed. Oikonny overruled the Peace Parley Accord. Soon, this city will resemble the old-town ruins!"

"Please be calm," Fara said in a commanding tone. "We need to know the best route to the Capital's Central Government Office."

"It's no use," Said the older lizard. The way he was dressed, Fara felt he should have carried a monocle to go with his top hat, cane and fancy Cornerian style business attire. The older lizard added, "Oikonny's nephew must have already secured that building or this attack wouldn't be able to happen! Only by capturing that building can the city's defense shield be lowered, thus allowing these attacks!"

McCloud approached Fara and the Lizard who appeared to be in his mid-to-late 50's. Fara prompted him to continue and so he did, saying, "Not even small aircraft can enter the city until the main defense shield is down. It's undetectable to sensors and until now, it's been a secret that only rich business owners or government officials knew about."

"That tells us that you're a rich business owner," Star said, before pointing to the man's clothes. "This tells me your business does well. Now how could my team have landed in the Old City ruins with a shield up?"

"The defense shield covered Old City, too," The lizard said, taking another sip from Fara's water canteen. "The only way you could have gotten in was because the shield has been down since before your arrival. An air strike takes time to arrange and on such short notice, Andrew Oikonny must not have been able to amass one right away. Regardless, I only know of its existence because my business is in commerce and we have to bring in supplies by appointment and I have to sign with the state government on _every_ appointment."

"What does that entail?" Fara asked, placing her paw beneath his jaw, cupping softly to keep the water from running down his chin during his next sip. The lizard pulled the flask from his scaly lips and replaced the cap, passing it back to her.

"For every delivery and for every ship that leaves the city," the lizard began, "I have to personally notify the Government of the appointment date and time that the shield will need to be lowered to allow passage. It's kept secret so no one can launch anything at the city in that window."

"And now it's completely down," Star surmised with a nod. "We have to get that shield back up and take out Oikonny. Do you think he would be in the city or would he be launching this attack himself, from the safety of …say… a nearby military outpost?"

"This is the Capital City," said the aging Lizard. "He would be here in the city, in the Capital Building, trying to topple the government and replace it. The Capital Building has its own shield that cannot be penetrated even when the City Shield is down so he would feel safe there. Also, he has a large, loyal lizard army at his disposal from the southern hemisphere. Most of the planet is still loyal to his family's cause because they helped our economy so very much in the past."

"That's disgusting," McCloud muttered, turning to Crimson. "Hey, Red, we're going to have to mount an offensive against a mercenary militia. It sounds like they've taken over the capitol's main government building. You want to try and shut it down?"

"Not without _my_ help, you're not," Fara quickly cut in, glaring at McCloud.

"Yeah," Red replied, nodding to McCloud. He then turned to Fara and said, "I'm sure Star has no delusions of trying such a stunt without you."

"Quite right he wouldn't," Fara said, coming to her feet, putting her flask back onto her gear belt. "Such an endeavor would be suicide without the right mission experience." She paused then frowned. "…It may be suicide even _with_ the right people," She added at the end, nearly muttering the last statement.

"Let's see what we can get done," McCloud said. "Assuming they only just arrived, it sounds like we're up against a few idiot lizards who're taking over a building that they're unfamiliar with. They probably have blue prints and such but they're not completely on their own turf, either. In consideration of the fact that they've only recently secured the building, they either have hostages or have killed everyone inside.

"If we rescue a hostage, we can use their help in planning out how to shut down the base. If they've killed the entire staff, we can set up a decoy and take one of their men down. We'll get information from him and plan a strategy from that knowledge." Star folded his arms then added, "Don't look nervous, Fara. I'm telepathic, after all."

"But where will we obtain a decoy?" She asked, tilting her head so that her horizontal ears were shifted to a diagonal angle. Her eyes bore into his, waiting for an answer to see just what it was that the fox had up his sleeve. Star retrieved his mother's staff from the sheath on his back. The pole extended in length in his paws, as if activated solely on touch.

McCloud grinned at her, lowering his gaze to the staff as if to peruse it in an appraising manner. "Slippy Toad may not be with us any longer but that doesn't mean he can't help us now," Star told them.

"Go on," Fara said, motioning with her paw.

"Back in my father's mid-to-late twenties," Star began, giving the staff a slow twirl in his right paw. "He was using this staff on Sauria to complete a mission. Slippy rigged it with a special holo-emitter that caused him to take the form of the enemy SharpClaw. I have a plan to alter that image. What we need to do is take a reconnaissance photograph and transfer the image to the program in the staff's memory chip. We then use the cloaking ability to make me appear as a Venom Empire guard. We trick him, subdue him and then I telepathically pry information from him in order to find out where Andrew is, what the security detail consists of… then we make our move."

"Sounds dangerous," Fara mused, tapping her chin pensively a delicately manicured digit. The furry family of five, her dainty right paw, seemed to be in complete contrast to the black, fingerless gloves she wore over the pads of her palms.

"Sounds like it just might work," Crimson added with a faint grin. "I like it; that was quick, Mac. What do you think, _besides_ the fact that it sounds dangerous, Fara?"

Phoenix continued to tap that lacquered nail against her lower lip, glancing about the bank, furtively. Finally, she replied, "It'll work if we can get this staff to do what you've claimed it can do."

"No worries," Star told her. "Let's just get over there. I have a digital binocular camera in my pack. Let's go find a guard and steal his identity, shall we?"

* * *

**The young McCloud was** on pins and needles. He stood upon a rooftop overlooking the target destination, watching through binoculars. He didn't like Fara's adaptation of the plan but she seemed so confident in its ability for success that he allowed the change to occur. Fara Phoenix decided to lure out a guard from near one of the main entrance points.

It wasn't a sexual luring but rather, the plan was to let herself get caught trying to sneak in then escape. She was concerned that Star and Crimson didn't have the experience necessary to stay alive while trying to escape from a guard. McCloud, on the other hand, didn't want to accidentally lose his most valuable new teammate. Ultimately, Fara's confidence in her ability to pull this off was what caused Star to grant her such leeway.

Crimson was the failsafe, waiting nearby to cover Fara with weapon's fire if anything went wrong. Star was in position with the binocular camera to take a photograph of the guard so he could later become the decoy. Obviously, timing was essential to success.

The rooftop across the courtyard was fairly warm from the afternoon temperature and McCloud could feel it shaking ever so slightly each time a missile slammed into the ground nearby. While the air attack was less intense than when it first started, it was obvious that Oikonny had no desire to let up with the assault.

From McCloud's vantage point, he could see that the entire Capital was in ruins. Smoldering, dilapidated buildings subsisted as skeletons of their former glory. Nightmarish by contrast to their arrival, the vulpine could see the extensive wreckage in any direction. Massive steel girders resembled a pile of splinters from the distance. Clouds of plaster mixed with the ashes from multiple fires had besmirched the city in an opaque haze that loomed over most of the general district.

His gaze returned to the entrance door, waiting for Fara to make her appearance…

Meanwhile…

Fara Phoenix wiggled free of the crawlspace entrance, carefully skulking over the metallic vent that now rested on the floor beneath her belly. Coming to her knees, she glanced around the area then turned about, reaching back into the vent to retrieve her mirrored compact. She carefully removed the makeup mirror which had been used to deflect the beam of an optical laser eye, used as an alarm system. She then she placed it back into her pocket.

When she was finally inside, Fara quickly located the front door which, as she expected, was guarded by one lizard. Kneeling down at the archway leading into the lobby, Miss Phoenix drew a pistol and attached a laser sight. Once the red dot touched a small rectangular box on the guard's belt, she fired the silenced weapon. To her delight, the radio unit shattered in a brilliant display of sparks, indicating that she'd blasted the power cell.

Alarmed, the guard quickly drew his weapon but that too was blasted upon retrieval. He went for his sidearm next and that's when Fara decided to move. She ran through the lobby and into the next hallway causing the guard to dash after her. Sprinting at full speed towards a turn in the hall, she led the guard to the end until she had no choice but to turn right or turn around. She opted for the latter…

Fara quickly bent her knees then leapt forwards as only a fox or feline could do. She placed her foot against a window sill then placed her other foot against the double-density bullet-proof glass that filled every window in the entire Capital Building. With all the force she could muster, she pushed away from the wall with her legs and gracefully bound over the guard's head.

The lizard in pursuit had assumed that the perpetrator would turn right and so he was caught off guard. By the time he was able to skid to a halt, turn around and then resume pursuit she was nearly back to the lobby. He immediately opened fire with his personal blaster but it was obvious she knew what she was doing, quickly evading from left to right throughout the chase.

Almost in the blink of an eye, Fara pivoted hard; she shifted her weight so that her momentum didn't carry her to the floor. The fennec shouldered her way through the front door but it didn't open! She placed her paws against the cross bar to try and push on the door but it was locked down tightly. With her paws on the bar, she pushed off of it, transferring her weight and kicking backwards to catch her pursuer in the face. The lizard toppled back, looking dazed and Fara immediately went for a window adjacent to the door.

She reached back into her gear bag, hanging from her hip, and pulled a detonation charge free, slapping the wad of clay-like substance on the glass. She used her other paw to draw out another piece of equipment with ease. The dome-shaped object was placed over the clay piece and she winced in expectation. The blast was projected outwards from the dome shape of the object she used to cover the wad of explosives. The glass blasted outwards, away from her body spraying out over the Astroturf that surrounded the building.

As the guard clamored up into a half-kneeling position, Fara turned around, placing one foot on his shoulder. She placed her other foot onto his snout and did a sloppy backflip through the window. In anticipation of hitting glass shards, she relaxed her body and puts her paws up and out. For an instant, she landed on her palms in the grass but momentum carried her back so that she came crashing over onto her belly, looking back up at the window.

She scrambled to her feet and bolted away from the building just as the guard came through the front doors, which he'd unlocked. Giving chase, he was in the perfect place for Star to photograph him while Crimson lined up a shot for the takedown. Once Fara was far enough away, she came to a stop and turned around to survey her handiwork.

Upon closer inspection, she also noticed that she'd broken a nail on each paw from the half-assed stunt coming out of the window. Instead of the cliché response, she simply bit her tongue and shrugged it off. She could be upset about it later but knew that the field was no place for grousing over nails. They were the first set of long nails she'd grown since being in the military and now there were two missing. Moreover, she felt she _couldn't_ complain because she walked away from a backfired ordeal with her life and _still_ completed the objective.

"Stop right there!" The guard exclaimed. Those words would become his last; an energy discharge lanced out from Crimson's hiding place and passed through the Lizard's flesh, erupting from the backside of his skull. Immediately cauterized, the wound didn't leave a single trace of blood. The guard collapsed to the ground directly in front of the fennec who was still investigating her nails, nonchalantly. Fara approached him, grabbing the man by his uniform collar. She pulled the body away from the building and disposed of it in a nearby row of hedges.

"You all right?" Crimson said, approaching her.

"C'mon, get back to your hiding position," Phoenix scolded. "Show me where it was and we'll both go." Both of them knew that it was all up to McCloud now and that they couldn't really do anything until he was finished upgrading the staff. He had to download a digital image from his binocular camera and that would take some measure of time.

* * *

**Andrew closed his hand into a fist** until his nearly-hairless knuckles were turning white. He then lifted both hands and closed them into fists once more, knuckles facing outwards as if he was grasping for something in mid air or about to do a chin-up on a bar. "I want this insurgency to end before it even begins! I want whoever killed my guard to be dead! See to it!"

"I've got men on the job, Emperor!" said Commodore Brash Vandierfield. The lizard was one of the fiercest warriors and most loyal men to fight for Andross or Andrew Oikonny. Since his days as a Marshall he was known for brute strength, intelligent strategy and his lack of mercy. "I know just what to do to them; beneath the basement is the foundation pit and it will be my pleasure to drop them into it."

Andrew tilted his head slightly. "Refresh my memory; what is so diabolical about the foundation pit?"

"This building was built the year Andross was defeated by the Cornerian Mercenary Team," Vandierfield explained. "The basement floor was designed to be a catwalk but it's now a tiled floor. Beneath it, there is a gap spanning several stories and a bed of now-rusty metal spikes over a meter in length. I plan to destroy the floor with blaster fire after leading them down to the basement. They'll fall to their death. For the Empire!" The Commodore announced, thrusting one scaly fist into the air.

"Yes, for the Empire," Andrew replied, pointing to the door. "You've never failed me or my Uncle… at least not like your brother, Caiman. Bring me news of victory and the heads of these rebels."

The Commodore nodded and rushed out of the upstairs office; he saw to it to put his plan into motion _without_ the aid of his men. He knew that their success would mean a victory for him, but just incase this enemy was clever he had to set up his own plan. This meant setting a trap that could catch even the craftiest opponent.

* * *

**Stepping through the main doors**, McCloud glanced from left to right. His disguise was perfect and even did well enough to startle both Crimson and Fara after playfully sneaking up on them in their hiding spot just two minutes prior. He now crossed the main lobby with Crimson and Fara Phoenix in tow. The plan was witty, putting both of them in trick laser shackles. The 'guard' guided them to the steps adjacent to the secretarial lobby booth.

The ground shook again from a nearby explosion. Mortar fire sounded in reply and through the doorway, the team could see a group in orange vests running throughout the streets with a stretcher. An emerald colored cross and crescent-moon on each vest was the signature symbol for the green-blooded lizard's mercy organization. The two pilots suddenly came to a halt, nearly bumping into the back of McCloud who was donned in a holographic decoy.

At the top of the steps, Star McCloud seemed stunned to see an ape character dash through the intersecting loft hallway. "Ash Bowman?" Star whispered. He blinked, causing the holographic decoy to blink a pair of scaly looking eyelids.

"Excuse me?" Fara muttered in reply. "What did you see?"

"A ghost if anything," McCloud told her. "That seems highly unlikely. Ash should be dead. His grandfather killed him around the time my parents disappeared in that Gravity Bomb."

"Well who is this Ash guy?" Crimson asked quietly.

"There is a lot of speculation but…" The holographically camouflaged fox shrugged his shoulders then continued. "Scuttlebutt has it that Ash Bowman is the grandson of Andross Oikonny. If it's true then Ash either took his mother's maiden name or Andross is his maternal-sided grandfather. But a bunch of rumors from over half-a-decade ago… is just that: A bunch of rumors. Either way, the guy was killed and it was in the news. I remember Peppy being surprised about it during our first week together as roommates."

"Never heard the name before," Crimson said.

"That goes double, here," Fara added. McCloud simply shook his head then shrugged his shoulders. After a moment to regain his bearings, McCloud returned to his acting role of Lizard Guard. A quick tug on the leash and both laser-cuff sets pulled at the wrists of Fara and Crimson.

They continued up the stairs only to be greeted by several soldiers. After probing their minds, Star spoke in his best Venom tongue, telling them, "I've captured the attackers. I'm going to take them upstairs and introduce them to," He paused for a moment, quickly reading the broken thoughts of the enemy group. He then said, "Emperor Oikonny."

"What's wrong, Sergeant?" One asked. "Why are you pronouncing your vowels like that?"

"I bit my tongue when one of these slugs punched me in the mouth," McCloud quickly replied, adding enough of an edge to his voice to sound convincing.

"Carry on; Emperor Oikonny is still in the main conference room," said the head-ranking Lizard of the group. McCloud nodded, praising himself for the decoy idea. He then led the 'prisoners' down the hallway and up another set of stairs. He followed his telepathic senses until he came to a door where he was positive that he could sense Andrew. It was difficult to read the half-ape but it wasn't hard to recognize the thought patterns, no matter how clouded with anger they seemed to be.

There was a knock on the door and someone called for entrance. The cloaked McCloud opened the door and led Crimson and Fara into the room. He stepped in behind them, shutting the door behind himself.

"I've brought the two-member assault team to you, Excellency," The lizard guard announced. "I caught them in the lobby and disarmed them, Emperor."

"Odd," Andrew said, turning to look at the three. "I was under the impression that our intruder was someone else altogether. So… Cornerians hmm?" Andrew then stepped from behind a desk and approached the group. The ape approached Crimson, placing his hand beneath the half-breed wolf's face, lifting O'Donnell's muzzle. "…you," Andrew growled. "Does your father even know what you're getting into, child?"

Crimson's eyes narrowed and said, "Wolf O'Donnell is just a sperm donor as far as I'm concerned."

"That may be the case," Andrew replied, "But as far as _I'm_ concerned, you're _far_ from being an ally."

"There _is_ one thing my father and I have in common; neither of us would ally ourselves with _you_," Crimson countered, acting as though he was tugging at the laser-cuffs aggressively. "Do what you're going to do, you moron. I don't have all day and I don't want to listen to your crap."

Andrew then sidestepped to Fara Phoenix, looking her over. "You… I don't recognize you. Are you mercenaries or military?" No reply from the fennec. Andrew grasped the vixen by her throat and said, "Think you're tough, eh? There is a great deal of hatred between Corneria and Venom. The more Cornerian blood I spill, the more tense our volatile relationship becomes. Are you going to talk or are you _beyond_ acting as a diplomat in a hostile atmosphere? Are you ready to _die_ for that chunk of rock?"

"I don't have time for your convoluted semantics," Fara replied with a professional sounding voice. "You bore me. Let's get straight to the point; do what you will." The ape released her and folded his arms, fairly impressed by her constitution and almost stoic demeanor in the face of danger.

"Well," Andrew stepped back a bit to look them over. "You're not who I expected," he added, taking another moment of repose before telling them, "So I have no use for either of you. A quick death will be fine. Take them to the basement, guard."

McCloud turned for the door and placed a scaly looking hand upon the handle. Opting not to opening the door, he locked it instead then whirled around to face Oikonny. The laser cuffs worn by Fara and Crimson seemed to disappear simultaneous to the complete dissipation of McCloud's holographic camouflage.

"What is this treachery?" Oikonny shrieked. "Who are you people?"

"We're StarFox," McCloud replied, drawing his sidearm. Fara and Crimson did the same, pointing their blasters at the ape. "And we're here to shut you down. You have three options: Die, become our prisoner or bring your Uncle out of hiding… if you decide to comply with the third option, I _might_ let you go." McCloud offered a genuine but aggressive looking smile. He wanted Andrew to believe him, to provide the ape with some incentive for compliance.

"Did you know my Uncle raised me? I could _never_ betray him," Andrew snapped. In that emotional moment of contempt, Star was able to cut through the ape's mental defenses just long enough to sense that Andrew _didn't_ know the location of his Uncle.

McCloud narrowed his eyes and said, "That's why you're a piece of crap, too. It's obvious you have no idea where he is, so you now only have _two_ options… death or surrender. Make your decision: drop to your knees or go for your gun."

"You…" Andrew tilted his head, acting as though the threat never fazed him. "You're the son of Fox McCloud and his little vixen tramp, aren't you…" He trailed off, raking his eyes over the blue star-like birthmark of fur around McCloud's eye.

"My team and I have three blasters trained on your head," the fox mused, "And you insult my mother. Are you _that _stupid?"

"You won't kill me if you're trying to find my Uncle," Andrew said, trying to call Star's bluff. The ape sneered, adding, "You need me alive to see if he'll come out of hiding. I have nothing to fear unless he refuses to show. His dwindling humanity suggests it will take days or even weeks before he makes a decision to help or leave me. You'll have a long wait and by the time you give up, the Imperial Venom Elite will have rescued me."

Star was growing impatient. "What the hell were you doing on Sauria, terrorizing Cornerian Colonies," McCloud demanded, changing the subject.

"We don't have time for this," Andrew replied, saying, "I'm far too busy of a man for the likes of a dead team run by the son of an idiot jock and his bitch." McCloud's eyes went wide but before he could react, Andrew was quickly beginning to sink into the floor. He dropped into a tube which resealed itself in the floor, leaving the three of them to shoot at the small round metal cover that was previously unnoticed.

"If that moron reignites the Lylat war," Crimson muttered.

Star was quick to finish the sentence, adding, "First, more than half of the ape population will side with him again, the marmosets will follow and the Lizards will feel like they have a powerful alliance. The Venomian economy will begin to flourish again, they'll begin building stations and battle cruisers, both races will begin training militia and we'll have a damned mess. What's left of the Anglor Army will join the alliance and they'll try to overwhelm Katina and Corneria."

Phoenix frowned thoughtfully; she was the only person who had to read about her generation in the history books. "I read a bit about the Anglor Army; they came from the acidic seas of Venom. Where did all the apes and lizards from the Lylat War go?" Fara asked, having been in stasis during those post-war years.

"They became guns for hire," Crimson replied, explaining, "A lot of them were employed by my father, in his late 20's and early 30's. They would transport in to places like Sargasso and take an assignment then roll back out to complete it. My father had a contraband conglomerate made up of pirates who all followed a code. It was the ultimate money maker for any lawless mercenary looking for capital gain. It didn't last forever but it certainly helped out soldiers in the post-'Lylat War' era."

"Good Goddess, how in the Creator's name did _that_ work?" Fara asked, brushing off the fact that she was swearing.

Crimson made it rather simple. "Dad flew out and got the business. The Merc's would transfer in, Ruffian would dole out the jobs and the cash would be electronically transferred upon completion," He said with a shrug. "Anyhow, we're standing here talking; let's go get that asshole."

"Agreed," Star replied. "But running out that door is what they want. We need another way and all we're doing is buying ourselves time."

"How so?" Fara asked.

McCloud hooked a thumb back at the door and said, "There are a dozen soldiers and one commanding officer somewhere outside of that door. More than two thirds of them have sniper scopes trained on the handle."

Fara gasped. "They've been apprised of the situation that quickly?" She inquired. The answer was a simple nod of the head from McCloud. Not yet defeated she turned towards the door, cupping the bottom of her jaw in thought. "If you two didn't spend so long excoriating one another, we could have stunned him and taken him as a hostage."

"I got him upset enough to lose his train of thought," Star replied. "Besides," he continued, adding, "Even though I now know he doesn't know where his uncle is, I still confirmed that he was on Sauria even though he physically said nothing to implicate himself."

"This isn't the time for ruminating raillery, Mister McCloud," Fara responded with a slight sharpness to her tone. "I don't mean to be harsh but he's getting away. Are you _sure_ there is an ambush waiting for us outside? Why wouldn't they just break into the room, then?"

"Look outside," McCloud replied, pointing to the electronic panel on the wall. She approached it and punched in a few buttons. After finding the right one, she managed to pull up a view of the hallway as seen from an optic sensor in the ceiling outside of the door. There was no one at the other side of the door. "They don't want us to hole ourselves up in here. They want us to open the door, look around then walk out into the hallway with our defenses down." McCloud's tone went from that of offering banter to the carefully worded voice of a professional.

"Very well," she replied. "They're going to ambush us. Now what?"

"We come up with options. Let's hear'em," McCloud told his team.

* * *

A/N: _Chapter 10 is already finished. Originally I wrote a 34 page, 16,524 word chapter. Then I decided to split them in half RIGHT HERE. The rest will be posted almost immediately after this but I don't want to just throw both chapters up at the same time… I want to go back and toy with chapter 10 a little, add some descriptions to spice stuff up. Chapter 10 will be up… TOMORROW_ :D 


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: _**I was waiting to see if I could get at least... one review on Chapter 9... I finally did ...**So here is chapter 10. I wrote chapter 9 and 10 all in one session and right around this part is where I started to get tired… and yet I churned out 20 more pages, while tired :D That's how I roll, son! Btw, I'm back in Richmond. Long story short, my life has had a strange turn so… Yeah! And uh… stuff! _

_NEW STARFOX COMMAND DS News! I've seen two of the several special ending sequences… one of them: Fox, wearing shades, is portrayed with Krystal as his wife and their son. _

_One of the darker ones, Krystal is portrayed wearing Fox McCloud's flight uniform with James' colors, standing with StarWolf looking as sinister as could be. This screen shot as inspired me on such a deep level that you will hear about it in chapter 11. It will be creepy and it will be chilling… It will unnerve poor Star. Muwahahaha.

* * *

_

_Chapter -10-_

**Ash** **Bowman glanced down at his wristwatch** then leaned back against the wall. He had to be quick and he wasn't the most athletic or combat intense person on Venom, to be sure. He was a bit beyond middle aged anymore and knew he was no match for Commodore Brash Vandierfield …At least not when it came to a direct physical confrontation. Ash, however, was like his family in the sense that he was intelligent.

Bowman crept along the wall, staying back with his body flush to the wall. The camera at the end of the corridor hummed softly, panning from left to right but at best, it couldn't make out anything but a very grainy lump against the wall for whatever monitor was on the other end of a thousand feet of fiber optic cable. The camera panned to the far left again and Ash began to move further down the hall. After a few seconds, he paused again, careful not to move. Movement would be detected, no matter _how_ grainy the display was on the other end of that camera's cable line.

Once he was directly beneath it, the ape, roughly in his mid-to-late 40's, was quick to reach up and disconnect the co-axle cable coming out of the backside of the box and reaching into the ceiling. The camera dropped straight down on its axial track; the power light faded to darkness. He quickly darted down the hallway and took the stairs to the basement.

Once he stepped off of the final stair, a blaster shot erupted from the darkness at the other end of the area. The beam slammed into the floor, leaving a hole. Bowman didn't care to guesstimate its depth. Another shot lanced out, just to the ape's right side.

"You're an idiot to remain loyal to a dead cause!" Ash shouted to the darkness that stretched further back into the room. The extremely dim illumination wasn't helping and he didn't possess night vision goggles.

"You're intuitive to have known it was me," Came a voice. Vandierfield's scope gave incredible and accurate insight to every inch of the area. Another shot lanced out, hitting to the right side of the ape, leaving a hole. The tiles began to crack beneath Bowman's feet.

"My grandfather is dying in a hole," Bowman snapped, further adding, "The Anglor race only brought further chaos to Venom and now most of the planet is in economic ruins. You're letting your people slide into a massive depression. Your race will become extinct at this rate, I understand that. But helping that old bastard Andrew, let alone my Archaic grandfather… It's foolish!"

"No," Came the voice. "You're foolish." Another shot lanced out, striking the floor between Ash's ankles. The tiles gave way and Ash Bowman began to fall. His flight suit clung to his body but those silvery tousled strands of his headfur lifted straight up as he plummeted. The ape reached his arms out in an attempt to grasp at the edges of the hole but both of his elbows slammed into the ground around him.

His arms felt numb and his shoulders were already aching. Only by the sheer fortitude of an ape was Bowman able to keep from slipping through the newly created hole in the basement floor. Footsteps could be heard and slowly but surly, silver boots came into plain sight. Brash Vandierfield stepped into Ash's proximity, leaning down to chide the ape. "I am told," He began. "You were always considered a blemish on the Oikonny Family."

The Commodore placed his right foot upon Bowman's right hand, beginning to pivot and mash at the ape's fingers the way one might attempt to stamp out the burning butt of a cigarette. Ash's eyes began to water from the pain but his sheer willpower was far greater than in the days of his youth. Back then, he only sought to aid those who were already fighting the same cause but now he wanted to finish this himself.

"You know, Emperor Oikonny once piloted a ship," Vandierfield muttered, still stomping on the ape's fingers. "He even flew with _and_ against the StarFox mercenary team over the Anglor race. He does what needs to be done for Venom. He may not be as great as his Uncle but he's a great man, never the less. You, however, are a thorn in Venom's side."

The floor tiles began to crack, further extending from the hole beneath Brash and to the north, towards the stairs. "This floor is going to give out," said Bowman, struggling to pull himself upwards.

Another voice… "It's a shame you'll be dead before you're correct on that observation." This time it was Andrew Oikonny. "I want to see you fall to a gruesome death. You're not the baby cousin I once grew up with; you're now nothing more than an insect to me!"

"You were the older cousin I looked up to as a little boy," Ash admitted sourly. "I soon realized that, as a child, I was delusional and blind. You're a worthless old man and my grandfather is nothing more than a rotting husk with unfulfilled plans of conquest and domination. He'll die before he can even bring them to fruitation."

"You watch your mouth!" Andrew said, pulling a blaster from his belt. He fired a warning shot that struck the tiles very close to Ash's left hand. The blaster's setting was low enough that the beam didn't penetrate the tiles but it did serve to further destabilize the integrity of the floor. "You know," Andrew said, kneeling down in front of Bowman, "This is a very strange basement design. It was strong enough to hold several tons of computers a few years ago but there are no pillars beneath this floor. It's an unnatural design but it was once an effective one, nevertheless. However, now that a huge section of the floor has been destroyed, it will crumble beneath your weight until you fall to your death."

"Andy, you moron," Ash grumbled, "You keep shooting this section of the floor and the entire panel will collapse, killing all three of us." The crack towards the north began to widen beneath Andrew's weight. Bowman glanced over his shoulder, seeing that the crack on the other side was growing worse as well.

"Shall we go, Sir?" Brash asked.

"No," Andrew replied. "I want to ensure that he is dead. I'm tired of him meddling in my affairs. I stayed on Sauria, low key and planning, because of this little twerp. I will run no further. He dies… now."

"You idiot!" Ash said, seeing his cousin lower the blaster once more. Before Andrew could pull the trigger again, Bowman snatched Andrew's ankle, pulling hard. The ape misfired, hitting the floor, close to Brash, before falling onto his back. The crack near Commodore Vandierfield opened up completely and the lizard found himself in a sudden freefall.

Before he knew what was going on, the Commodore felt his body jerk upwards, held by his collar. His head lifted and he was gazing eye-to-eye with Bowman. It was obvious the Ape didn't have the strength to hold on much longer, let alone pull the lizard to safety in this position. "You fool, do you always save your enemies?" He snapped, referring to several decades ago when Ash Bowman helped the StarFox team against the Anglorian race.

"If I believe they show promise, they deserve a chance," Bowman erupted, grunting under the stress of holding both of their bodyweight while clinging to Andrew's ankle. Andrew used his other foot to kick at Ash's hand, screaming incoherently for Ash to let go prompting Bowman to look back down at Commodore Brash once more. "He wants both of us to die. You were so very loyal to him and now he wants you to die, too."

"No," Vandierfield growled softly. "He wants me to die with honor, and not to be at your mercy. Release me, you fool."

"As you wish," Ash replied, releasing the Lizard's collar. Brash Vandierfield began to fall. The encroaching darkness swallowed his body and he disappeared in the void below.

Seconds later, Brash's eyes caught a glimpse of the impending serrated metal that would surly bring about his end. There was no pain at first. Massive blades ripped through his scaly flesh, plunging through his left leg, stomach, his heart and through his mouth, exiting through the back of his neck narrowly missing the instant severing his spine.

The metallic flavor of blood ran over his tongue, providing him with a literal taste of his own death. The icy sensation of cold metal between his ribs was the worst of it at first. An attempt to lift his head failed and his right leg hung free, leaving him wonder just how long these spikes really were. Without further warning, his body sank all the way down the length of those metallic rods until he lay upon the floor in a puddle of his own blood. It was cold against his flesh. His lower lip quivered, trying to close his mouth but his attempts were futile.

As the emerald fluid drained from his body and mixed with the oxygen it began to take on a rusty coloration. The sanguine vitae poured from his broken body, filling his lungs and drowning him. He attempted to choke from the asphyxiation but it was no use… taking a simple breath, something once taken for granted, was now impossible.

Brash Vandierfield, a symbolic Commodore of all that remained of old Venom… spent the last seconds of his life -of his impaling death- in anger. He felt cheated… robbed of a triumphant victory. There was no sensation of guilt or loss, only immense sensations of an inner turmoil that would never be settled…

Up above, Ash struggled, pulling himself upwards. Andrew clinched his fists, narrowing his eyes. "My best field general is dead, you twit!" He exclaimed. "You have this knack for ruining things many times over in the last two decades!"

Andrew drew his foot back and gracefully swung his leg out in an attempt to punt Ash to his death but the ape held tightly, his left hand on the broken floor section and his right hand around Andrew's other ankle. He winced in pain and his elbows were hurting but he wasn't defeated.

* * *

**Star McCloud snapped his fingers**, causing both Fara and Crimson's ears to perk. He turned to the far wall and began to hunt for an air duct. Crimson approached his friend with a shrug. "If they're so clever, don't you think they'd have thought of this, too?" 

"We'll just have to make this work," McCloud announced. "If one of us goes this way then comes back up behind the ambush, we can distract them while the other two escape."

"I suppose," Crimson replied.

"Obvious exits are most likely suicide," Fara countered.

"Not necessarily," Star interjected, glancing up at the two. "I'm willing to wager my tail on this bet; I'll be back in a moment." He ripped the vent register clear off of its bolts then flung the metal grate across the room. It crashed noisily against the floor over by the doorway and the fox placed his ankles into the corrugated shaft. "Damn, the shaft isn't smooth which means it's going to be a real pain to get to the bottom."

"Got a better idea?" Crimson asked, turning to Fara.

"We disassemble a blaster and use it on the window," She replied.

Star disagreed, saying, "I don't want a good weapon to be decimated… especially when our only option concerning a window is a very long drop to pavement and Astroturf. How about we try this and if I die, you two jump out the window?"

"Oh look," Fara said in a scolding manner. "It's a man's idea of satire, how trite!" She folded her arms for a moment then added, "I don't mean to seem so defensive but you're taking a metallic shaft 5 stories down. I'm proposing an upward climb with only 3 stories to the ground. Both will hurt and you chiding me about my idea will only piss me off."

"You're hardly being confrontational," Star told her. "I like the fact that you have a little attitude when someone tries to shower you with testosterone."

"Funny," she mused. "I was just thinking that; you're showering me in testosterone."

"Nah," Star said as he wiggled down into the vent, now up to his waist. "But yes, I know that's what you were thinking which is why I said that. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes, call the Prime Minister, the press and notify my next of kin."

"You don't have a next of kin," Crimson cut in, offering a smirk. "So therefore you can't die since we don't have anyone to notify."

McCloud first cast a grin at his friend then extended the expressive glance to Fara. "Well then… there ya go, I'll be back in fifteen minutes, won't I?"

"You're not being professional," Fara groused softly. McCloud crooked a finger at her, summoning her forth. She went over to the vulpine pilot who was now down in the register up to his arms and knelt down, expecting for him to tell her something by his demeanor and the way he was waggling his finger.

As soon as she knelt down, Star used a free paw and snatched her chin, pulling her into a quick kiss, just to return the favor from the other day. She blinked, completely stunned. It was an unprofessional reply to her comment about his lack of professionalism but she couldn't argue that it was nice. Before she could spit out another word, he dropped into the vent and was gone.

There were a few thumps heard from the hole in the wall followed by a low grunt but overall, his descent was rather quiet in moderation. In spite of her warnings, the young man had no reserve about jumping down a heating vent. In consideration of Crimson's agreement, McCloud had decided that this was the best course of action. There was no way he was going to scale the wall of a building, free form climbing, under blaster fire. It just wasn't going to happen.

The pilot put his feet and paws outwards, rapidly slowing his descent. Because the ventilation shaft wasn't smooth, he came to a near stop within seconds of dropping. Once at the bottom, he kicked his feet outwards and caused a vent cover to go flying. However, there was no noise. He perked his ears, waiting to hear the grate hit something but it took longer than he had hoped. Once the sound finally rang out, he deduced that it was not only far away but it sounded like something other than a solid floor.

There was no clattering. When the cover finally did hit something solid, it was more of a shanking noise of metal being skewered by metal. He slid further down until his legs were free then he gripped at the rim of the shaft and dropped until his arms became taut. He was obviously in the basement, now.

At the end of the room, a male with white hair was struggling to pull himself up from the ledge of a broken cellar floor. Andrew Oikonny was with him and the two appeared to be struggling. McCloud glanced about himself, looking for where the floor wasn't crumbling. There was a nearby section but it would be quite the jump. He wasn't athletic enough to try and run across the wall in order to reach the section of flooring that had yet to give out and the thought of swinging from his paws seemed foolish.

He drew his blaster pistol from his belt with one paw, hanging from his other. Star took his time and carefully aimed then he pulled the trigger. A bolt lanced outwards and struck Andrew in the chest, throwing the half-breed ape to his back. "Born from a jock and a tramp, am I?" Star muttered. "Now who's the chump?"

His muscles ached and the building shook again from the attack outside. To his surprise, the next volley of attacks was so close that it not only shook the building right down to its foundation, but the long shaft heading into the basement became to shift. Suddenly McCloud began to fall. He reached his paw up to the rim of the vent and now, with both paws, he held on tightly.

An entire section had ripped free from the rest of the shaft but it didn't plummet into the pit beneath the basement. His blaster, however, fell into the abyss and was lost. His head lowered, watching the small orange flash between his feet, far below. Across the room, Ash Bowman pulled himself up to a solid section of the basement flooring.

Since the vent was in the back corner of the ceiling, McCloud was able to put his feet against one of the walls. He bent his knees then shoved forth, pushing against the bulkhead. His paws released the metallic lip then reached outwards for anything. A section of the basement floor touched his padded palms and his fingers instinctively closed around it.

Suddenly a strong hand wrapped around his right wrist and he felt his body begin to ascend. "I never asked you or your family to intervene this time around," Bowman said. "But… thank you," he added, referring to the blaster shot on Andrew's chest. "Now go on, I'd appreciate it if you got out of the affairs of my business and let me handle Andrew."

"If he leaves Venom, he's fair game," McCloud warned. "I'm not like my mother and father; if you tell me to leave Andrew alone, I'll reply that you can go to hell, Mister Bowman."

"You helped me and I've helped you," Ash said. "We're even. If you ever see your parents again, tell them I said hello. From what I understand about my grandfather's Gravity Bomb, it shouldn't have killed them. There are two possibilities depending on a mixture of variables… they're either in another sector of space, far from here… or they're suspended in a state of stasis, just beneath the fabric of normal space-time. Now, get out of here. This civil war is going to tear this city to shreds. Don't be in the middle of current history as it's very dangerous."

Star's feet touched solid floor and he sighed in relief. "All right. We'll play it your way this time but I'm not finished. Andrew is my bounty and I plan to collect on him. I have a strange feeling I'll be crossing your path again," McCloud surmised. "Dad has mentioned you; I won't fly against you… but as far as Andrew Oikonny… I don't care whose cousin he is… He's a target. I'll take him down without blinking. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have friends upstairs. They're waiting for me."

"Very well," Ash said, trying to force a polite smile as best as possible. The two nodded to one another and McCloud approached the stunned body of Andrew Oikonny.

"You're goddess-damned lucky," McCloud said. "But our next meeting, you'll wish you'd stayed in bed," He warned the half-ape. Oikonny forced one eyelid to open, drunkenly gazing up at the fox. His motor skills had failed from the stun effect and he was unable to move. Star then added, "Your ass is worth food on the table for one year. I'll be back to collect. I'll be waiting not far from Venom, just like your buddies are still waiting outside the conference office, upstairs for Fara and Crimson. I'll sendthose soldiers your warm regards when I blow them to pieces."

Andrew was still unable to reply.

* * *

**McCloud raced up the stairs**, keeping his eyes wide open for trouble. Once he was in the main lobby he stopped, glancing up to the loft-style hallway above. The vulpine was quick to take refuge in a small cove behind the secretary's desk. He opened a channel to Bill Gray's personal communicator, staying out of sight. 

"Acting General Gray, here," Came a tired sounding response. It was the same Bill Gray from earlier. The half-husky half-greyhound appeared to have had a long morning, so far.

"Personal favor," McCloud said, "I am on Venom and I've confirmed that Andrew Oikonny is behind a lot, including a new Civil War on Venom. I'm in the middle of it and my team is pinned down under snipers and I'm working to get them out. Do you have any suggestions for me? I could really use the advice of a professional right about now."

"You know," Bill began, pondering for a moment before continuing… "Your mother was really good in these situations. Maybe it was her telepathy but she was one of the best wingmates I've flown with, even if it was just for a short amount of time."

Star balked. "You never told me she flew with you." McCloud didn't know how he felt about that. Learning that his mother left StarFox was awkward enough but to find out that she joined Bill Gray was even weirder. "You guys didn't… you know… date or anything, did you?"

"Fox is my best friend," Bill said, shaking his head. The holographic image pixilated around the edges from the movement and sway of his fur. Gray then lowered his chin a bit and added, "I thought about it though. And she's telepathic, so I'm sure she knew I considered it. I'm sorry, Star. I don't mean to get into this right now; I understand your team is bogged down."

"We'll talk about this later," McCloud said, adding, "And don't call me Star. I hate that goddamn name. Now, here's the situation. I'm in the lobby on the first floor. On the third floor, there's a loft hallway and on one side my team is in a conference room, on the other side, there are multiple snipers in the area, with their sights trained on the doorway. Andrew is on the sub-level 2 basement floor with Ash Bowman and Oikonny's Commodore is dead."

"Windows or vents in the conference room?" Gray asked, returning to business. He dreaded a future conversation with McCloud pertaining to his mother but only because he was roommates with the kid and never brought up the fact that Krystal flew with him on rebound from Fox McCloud. Surly that would make any young man feel awkward.

"Both," Star replied. "I took the vent to the basement but the shaft is in poor shape. It wouldn't support another person. The windows would need some real work and then it would take someone with real skill to scale the flat walls outside. Else it's a three story drop to the ground. I'd use my camouflage decoy holographic emitter but mom's staff is low on energy and I want to look at other options before I use the last of its power."

The General face-faulted. "This is an awkward situation, McCloud. I don't have anyone in the area that can help you right now, either."

"This is a hot combat zone, General," McCloud replied, adding in his own hint of professionalism. The lack of a name made the situation feel less personal and that worried Bill. He didn't want Star to act strangely because of something that happened twenty years ago.

Suddenly the building shook again. Plaster fell from the ceiling, coating the blue-haired fox in a light layer of dust. "What the hell was that?" Bill asked.

"I told you, General," McCloud replied. "It's a combat zone; there is a civil war beginning outside. Oikonny's forces are pounding the Capital City into submission. It would be in Corneria's best interest to form an immediate truce with the residents not loyal to the Empire's cause."

"Are the Anglor's involved?" Gray asked, changing the subject.

"Forget about them," Star snapped. "Two members of my team are pinned down with two very dangerous options. I need advice; the Anglors aren't around, at least any that I've seen yet. Andrew escaped from that room in a transport tube in the floor but we can't access it. Can you pull up special intelligence information on this building or ... something?"

"Calm down, McCloud," Gray demanded. "I need a moment to think. Like I was trying to say earlier before I inadvertently insulted you… your mother was good in situations like this because she simply used her telepathy to determine where each target was. She would then help me flank the badguys and we'd take them down one at a time until the area was clear. You're her son and you have her powers, can't you scout them out?"

"She was also doing this for two years leading up to that point," Star reminded. "She was a pilot and a certified, licensed explorer who studied hard to pass difficult tests on Cerinia. Not only that," Star explained, adding, "She wasn't half Cornerian. I am."

"All right, man. Just calm down," Bill said. He then placed his paw over the lens on the other side of the channel, blocking out the holographic emitter of Star over on Corneria. McCloud could hear his muffled speaking then his image returned. "I've got so much going on over here right now that it's crazy. Listen, here's a quick idea off the top of my head: Get your digital binocular camera and take a picture of that section of the third floor. Hardwire your holographic communicator and your mother's staff then project an image up onto that section of floor. That will reduce the energy consumption on the staff alone. Once it's cloaked, have your team leave the door, stay close to the walls and get out of that immediate area. Your idiot of a best friend, O'Donnell? Yeah… well… his father used that little trick to Pirate a large amount of money from a bank ship, so don't think _me_ for the idea. Let me know if you're all right after this… General Gray…out."

The holographic projection was extinguished and McCloud was left sitting there, blinking. The idea was pure genius and there was a possibility that the maneuver wouldn't drain the Staff's entire energy gauge. The only problem was that McCloud wasn't an expert with stuff like this. Violet was the best he knew but she wasn't here right now.

"Think," Star told himself. "I could just rig the batteries in parallel, right? I don't _think_ that should overload them but … dammit." He simply stared at the communicator, knowing he'd have to call Violet and have her walk him through it. A loud noise out in the main part of the lobby shook him from his reverie and caused him to peek out to see what the commotion was.

To his surprise, a small group of lizards ran into the area with guns, stopping in a formation at the foyer. Two more broke off from the group and took to the stairs, quickly securing the second floor. Another two broke from the main group, heading for the stairs when McCloud quickly came out of hiding to stop them. "Don't go up to the third floor!" He said, sensing that they were a resistance group. "There are snipers up there, pinning down my teammates in the conference room!"

"Douy flek, geh'hizmo?" cried one. It was reminiscent to the Saurian lingo but the syntax was evolved. With his telepathic abilities, Star was able to make conversation.

"I'm the lead pilot of StarFox," McCloud told them. "Andrew Oikonny is on the second sub-level and the ranking military official in this building is dead. The snipers have fortified their positions and have their sights locked on the conference room door. What are you people doing here?"

The same lizard who spoke before, said, "We're here to secure our Capital. What the hell are _you_ doing here?" He demanded in the Venom lexicon.

McCloud approached the speaker of the rebel faction and said, "We came for Oikonny. Corneria wishes to place him under arrest."

"If you know where he is, why aren't you arresting him?" The man asked, tilting his head slightly in a bird-like fashion.

"It's complicated," Star replied, offhandedly referring to his compliance to the wishes of Ash Bowman. "Andrew was incapacitated and now I'm coming to the rescue of my team as they're pinned down with no viable options."

"Fair enough; a typical Cornerian response: putting your team before your mission," The lizard replied with a harsh edge to his tone. "Cold blooded we may be but putting the mission first and ensuring success always takes precedence. StarFox… that name rings a bell…"

"Yeah, it saved Venom about half-a-dozen times," McCloud retorted.

"Oh," The lizard simply smirked. "You mean the team that kept trying to defeat our dictators and oppressors but never actually finished each job and broke up because of the egotistical, over-zealous leader between each mission?"

Star blinked. He'd never realized that Venom schools viewed the history in such a way. Everytime Andross, Andrew or the Anglor race was defeated they wound up making some sort of return. When fighting the Aparoids and saving Sauria, Venom was never involved so therefore the Venom outlook on StarFox was a team who never completely finished each mission. Also, it was public knowledge each time that StarFox disbanded and they managed to fall apart several times between catastrophic events, demanding their return. Was it really his father's fault?

Seeing the look on the boy's face, the lizard added, "That's right, youngster. Fox McCloud was an imbecile outside of his cockpit. He couldn't handle the simple politics of keeping a small band of mercenaries together and couldn't offer a family atmosphere because he grew up without a father or mother in his life. Without understanding the simple concept of a family atmosphere, he was unable to provide for his non-blood family. Once the team passed puberty, they each got a girlfriend and their little family disbanded. They were all idiots… good pilots with no direction."

Star was mortified and completely insulted. Is this how Venom really remembered his father? Not as a liberator but as a problematic pilot who couldn't even hold a small group of people together? He could partially understand their mentality. Falco left the team and Slippy took a job working for Corneria. Once the team reassembled, Fox and the team only lasted for about a year or two then things went sour again. Ultimately, Falco left the team again for Katt Monroe, Slippy left the team for Amanda, Peppy left the team to become a General and spend more time raising his daughter, Lucy, on Corneria… And last of all, Fox broke up with Krystal.

The Lizard lifted a scaly, clawed hand and waved for the two men at the steps to find an alternative method to the third floor then delivered hand signals to another two men. All four men left the immediate group to begin a search-and-sweep plan. The man then turned back to McCloud and said, "You are the offspring of Fox McCloud and the blue vixen?"

Star nodded slowly, simply replying with, "Yes."

"You owe your life to the Anglor attacks. They terrorized Lylat, furious that they were disturbed," The lizard replied. "If they remained at peace, your father would not be Fox McCloud. As you can see, they have doomed your fate, too. Now, let us see about your team." The lizard spoke for another moment but Star couldn't focus on what he was saying. All he could do was think about what would have happened if the Anglor race remained dormant…. Would his father be Bill Gray? Was Fox McCloud really the legendary hero that Cornerian history books portrayed him to be?

McCloud felt confused on a personal level. What if Fox and Fara were meant for one another and Krystal was meant for someone else? What if she should have died on Cerinia like the rest of her race? What if Star wasn't meant to exist at all? Was the universe built from fate or freewill? He felt like focusing on soul searching for personal clarity once this mission was finished. But what if his father felt the same way and that's what caused StarFox to break up so many times in the past? He didn't want to relive the exact same mistakes of his father. Maybe he could employ the help of his friends and team in helping him to cure this personal confusion… for now, their lives were at risk and it was time to save them.

"This is what I'm going to do," McCloud said, cutting off the lizard who was apparently still talking. "I'm going to create a holographic wall that looks exactly the same as the hallway on the third floor. We'll get my team out without them being noticed then we'll go back for Andrew. If you want to split up your team, you can send half of them for Andrew now. I don't rightly care. I just wish to help my wingmen and take down those snipers."

"You must transport Andrew Oikonny to Corneria yourself," the lizard replied. "If he stays here, he'll be rescued from any jail we put him in; if he's accessible to Venom, he'll not receive the death penalty. However, if my men kill him, his body stays here to be put on display. We'll see how this afternoon pans out."

"Lets home he doesn't escape," McCloud muttered. "Does your team have an electronics expert I can work with?"

"He was killed in action," replied the reptile. "Am I to understand that you require an electronics expert to help with your plan?"

"It would make things smoother," McCloud muttered. "Have a better idea?"

"My men will draw their fire while you help your team escape. I'm not doing this to help you," The lizard explained. "I'm doing this to discover the location of multiple snipers so that we can secure the building. I simply invite you to exploit this diversion in your favor. Our business here is finished, son of Fox McCloud."

"Actually you can call me…" Star paused. He despised his name and here he was about to give it out. He simply shook his head and said, "Forget it… 'Son of Fox McCloud' is fine." He didn't feel like he was living in his father's shadow in front of a people who didn't think highly of Fox McCloud to begin with. "The Commodore is dead; you should have no trouble securing this building. See ya."

The blue-haired fox turned away from the lizard, his mind swirling with mixed emotions. His inability to settle his temper and concentrate made it difficult to utilize his telepathy. Without that power, he was putting his team at risk, since they only agreed to this mission because they thought he would be able to use it to protect them from danger. Now he was just an angry kid who had to help his friends duck and cover to escape a concrete deathtrap.

The city shook again, causing the building to tremble. Loud creaking noises were heard throughout the complex, furthering the destabilization. McCloud got halfway across the lobby when the lizard shouted out to him, "There is a bunker intended for the government officials. On the first floor basement, you must head into the western tunnel which slopes downwards for a few hundred meters. It leads out to the ruins of the old city for a safe escape but there is no guarantee that the tunnel may have caved in years ago. It should still be functional. Don't leave through the city, that would be foolish. Making better choices is the first part of becoming a real leader. The second part of being a leader is a great deal like being the father of a group of children. When you respect them, they respect you and you're able to get along as equals but when the time comes to be serious, they still respect you first and follow your orders no matter what they are. Don't be an imbecile."

"Thanks," McCloud replied, heading for the stairs. Under his voice, he added, "…I guess." He made his way up to the third floor and waited by the steps for the rebel faction to go through their pattern the way they'd rehearsed during training. They were experts, using intelligent tactics to draw fire, locate the enemy snipers then eliminate the gunman, one by one. Gunfire rang out through the lobby on all floors, sporadic and rhythmic. The quick and clever fox waited because his instincts told him to do so.

A thunderous volley of noise was heard outside as missiles rained down in this area, showering the building's old force field. With power out to most of the city, the building's generators wouldn't hold out too much longer. A cloud of dust billowed in from the main doors in the lobby and the thick plume filled the main hall.

It only took a few moments for the dust cloud to rise upwards, making visibility difficult. It was the turn of fate that McCloud had been hoping for. He dashed down the hallway, approaching the conference room. He leaped into the air, pouncing the door knobs with all of his might. His left heel successfully snapped the handle from the door then he shouted, "It's me, unlock it and get out here!"

The door flew open and Crimson emerged with his blaster. "Fara went through the window after using her blaster to cut a hole in the wall around the outside of it. She made it to the roof, I saw her climb up, myself. She's setting up a beacon of distress to confuse the Venom air strike."

"She's goddess damned nuts," McCloud snapped. "We have an escape tunnel in the basement that should lead back towards Tricky and the ships. _Now _we have to get up to the roof and find Fara!"

"We waited an awfully long time," Crimson said defensively. "We assumed you were dead and so she took command."

"There are a lot of politics clashing here," McCloud replied. "Our mission was to stop the serial killer from terrorizing the Saurian Colonies. We've done that, they're safe. Let's go get paid. We'll go after Andrew if he lives to leave this planet but we're only putting StarFox at risk by chasing him all over Lylat. Let's go get Fara and get the heck out of here."

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Crimson asked.

Star shrugged, stepping back into the conference room and sitting down where he felt it was safe and out of the sight of the doorway. Crimson followed. McCloud glanced up at him then said, "It's weird; I've got a lot of stuff on my mind, Red. This team needs a lot of training together and we need for me to work out my personal crap with Violet."

"Hey, by the way," O'Donnell chuckled. "That was pretty smooth, the way you kissed Fara before dropping into the vent."

"Eh, I shouldn't have done it," McCloud bitterly admitted. "I'm sending mixed signals. I have to be sure how I feel about Violet before I go around doing stupid stuff like that." He paused then said, "I'm not trying to have StarFox be the butt of bad jokes. I don't want a team to have a reputation of its leader breaking the team up every other day because he can't get his crap together."

"You're being awfully hard on yourself," the half-wolf noted. "Did you have a black out? Is that why you took so long? It would certainly explain why you're in this sour-sally mood."

"No but I found out a bunch of things about this team and my family from different people while I was in the field." McCloud's words caught Crimson by surprise. Sensing the confusion, the fox told him, "I was talking to Bill to try and get some ideas about how to save you guys without getting us killed. I explained the situation and he referenced how my mother would have handled it… the weird part is… he knows from experience. When my parents had a falling out and broke up a few years ago, mom joined Bill Gray's team. Then when the Anglor's showed up, StarFox came back together just to stop the bad guys. IF they didn't attack, my mother and father may never have reconciled."

"You're here," Crimson said, shaking his head with an expression of pure amusement. "They're married," He added, placing his paws on his hips and his foot on a seat adjacent to McCloud. "Just because she's a woman and Bill is a man doesn't mean that those two would have eventually fallen in love just because they flew together. This world isn't _that _shallow. I thought you were the kind of fox who believed in like… soul mates and stuff."

The Mercenary leader shifted his weight uncomfortably. "I've already kissed Fara twice; what do you think Bill did with my mother?" Star muttered.

"First of all," O'Donnell said, seeing that this was really bothering his friend, "Just because you and Fara shared a kiss… doesn't mean you're going to father her children next season. And if you do, that just means you guys were meant for each other… it has nothing to do with convenience."

Red looked his quiet friend over then added, "And if Krystal _did_ suck face with Bill Gray, I doubt he'd have remained friends of the family. Give it a rest, we're trying to save our newest Team member, who's currently on the roof trying to stop them from pounding the shields of this complex before they give out and we all die. She's out there being brave; let's get out game-face on and play some ball, huh?"

Star glanced up at Crimson and offered a weak smile. It began to grow, tugging slightly at the corners of his muzzle as he let his friend's advice sink in. "You know something Red… you're not only right, Bill has the wrong impression of you, by far. You've just defended someone who does nothing but dog you all the time."

O'Donnell shrugged. "He _is_ a dog, McCloud. I guess, when you're on Sauria, do as the Saurians. Now let's go get our fennec out of danger, find this underground escape tunnel and get the hell off of this planet so we can get paid for our Sauria Mission, huh?"

* * *

**The stairs leading up were dangerous**. The two boys had to sprint them by sections to avoid being shot. At each platform between the next ascending flight of stairs, the two pilots would duck down and wait for a few moments. Occasionally, blaster beams and bullet shells would desecrate the nearby walls, riddling it with holes. The intensity of the fighting was growing to a fevered pitch and StarFox was caught in the middle, where they didn't belong. 

Their clothes were soiled with dirt and soot and a fire broke out on the fourth and fifth floor. The roaring inferno added an element of alacrity to their situation. "All we need now is for the stairs to crumble behind each step!" Star cried as the two rushed the next case of stairs.

"Don't you _ever_ say that again!" Crimson cried, reaching out a paw to tap the fancy wooden banister rail three times. "We have enough going on, I'm not trying to add to the situation and I don't want you jinxing us!"

"Don't worry, they seem pretty sturdy!" McCloud called back, raising his voice over the ambient noise of the roaring fire beneath them, the gunfire above and below them and the missiles detonating outside. In response, Crimson simply wrapped his paw against the wooden banister yet again.

Suddenly O'Donnell lost his footing and collapsed to the stairs. McCloud whirled about and snatched the lupine's paw. "See, I bet the frickin' stairs are collapsing aren't they!" He shouted, almost angry.

"No, dumbass," retorted the fox, pulling his friend back up to a standing position. "The stairs are covered with dust and plaster, just watch your step; c'mon!" He hooked one arm around Crimson's waist, guiding him up, to take point. "We're almost there and you'll live to kiss a woman before you reach 30 if you're lucky!"

"Screw you, McCloud," The lupine replied, placing his left paw over his muzzle to shield his face from the smoke present at the top of the steps. "What in the hell, is this floor on fire too?"

McCloud followed him into the top floor hallway, looking around. "Seems like it's coming up through the heating vents. I don't know how stable this floor will be with an oven directly beneath it, though. Watch your step."

"Will you stop trying to jinx this mission?" Crimson cried, throwing his paws into the air. "I'm serious, you're going to get us killed, then the only person left to date Violet will be Fara!"

McCloud snatched Crimson by his shirt and gave a tug, "C'mon, I wanna live to see that," He said, dashing down the hallway. The two made their way through the smoky area until they reached at door halfway down the aisle. It was marked '_Emergency exit to Roof. Caution: Alarm will sound_.' Star tightened his grip on Crimson's shirt to stop his friend, then released the cloth all together. "Right here! We found it, let's go!"

The door opened with relative ease but there was no alarm. Both boys took the steps two at a time, racing upwards only to come to a halt when they saw a small squad of lizards with weapons further up. "Get down!" McCloud hissed, dropping to his stomach on the stairs and staying as low as he could possibly lay. Crimson did the same, tucking his tail down between his ankles. "They might have Fara hostage," Star added with a frown.

"There's only one way to find out for sure," Crimson replied, pulling his communicator out. He opened a channel to Fara and said, "Fair-rah Fee-Nix," softly into the receiver.

"It's pronounced 'Fennecs'," She replied over the comm.-channel. O'Donnell's eyes shifted over to his friend and he grinned as if to say 'see?' then he handed the communicator over.

McCloud eased his thumb into the send button and said, "We're approaching your rooftop position now but there's a gaggle of guards at the top of the stairs. Since you're on the roof, let's flank'em. On my mark, ready?"

"You're not being very professional," She replied over the communicator. "Giving away your position, when I very well could have been captured? Not smart, McCloud. I want you to think about what you'd have done differently, knowing what you know now, if you had any intention of rescuing the damsel. Yes, I'm on the rooftop. It's a little hot up here, why don't you come join me… come unarmed."

The boys glanced at one another then McCloud face-palmed, groaning softly. "She's been captured and I sense that she's angry at us for not knowing."

"Well, why didn't you?" O'Donnell asked.

McCloud sighed and said, "I can't concentrate which is another reason I want to leave, because without my telepathy, we're sitting ducks." Suddenly a door opened leading to the rooftop, up above. Someone shouted a few words then the entire group of guards turned around seeing the fox and wolf halfway down the staircase. "Aw hell," the fox groused, pulling out his staff.

It still had charge because he conserved its energy from earlier. "What the hell is that thing going to do for us?" Crimson grumbled. Star ignored him, lifting the staff up and placing its bottom against a nearby step. A thick blue aura began to emanate from the pole, surrounding them both in an azure glow. "We're screwed," Crimson muttered only to gasp when rounds of ammunition were quick to ricochet off of the azure field. "Can I fire back at them?"

"If you want to risk your paw by sticking it through the shield," McCloud replied. "Go ahead, stick it out there where those bullets are and see what happens!"

"All right, all right, damn! All you had to say was 'no'." Crimson reached into his pack and pulled out one thermal detonator. The yellow round ball was found on the GreatFox II earlier and now Crimson was glad he'd brought it. He mashed his thumb in on the blue activation pad and counted softly. "One, two, three, four…" He then hurled the ball up the steps and watched patiently.

"If that thing blows up," McCloud sighed, "It might cause the entire staircase to collapse. If we fall to our deaths, I'm going to be pissed."

"Why?" Crimson asked, "The Fara and Violet thing?"

"You always have to ruin my chances, don't you?" Star asked, trying to replace his worry with offbeat humor. "How're you going to fix it now?" He asked, growing a bit more serious.

"Why didn't it blow up?" Crimson asked, changing the subject. One of the lizards noticed this as well and approached the detonator, picking it up. "Well, it _was_ really old," Crimson said with a sigh. Because the lizards stopped their barrage of gunfire to take cover, only to realize that the bomb was a dud, Crimson decided it was now safe enough to return fire.

He pulled his blaster from his belt and reached his right paw through the field, taking careful aim. His first shot hit the detonator, causing it to simply smoke. A thick miasma of the stale chemicals poured out, making it difficult to see. One of the lizards opened the door to the rooftop in an attempt to clear the section of smoke but that only bought the pilots more time.

Holding the staff in his left palm, McCloud reached his right paw into Crimson's well stocked gear bag and pulled out another weapon. The two of them quickly used the blaster pistols to disarm or kill as many guards as possible. Occasionally a lizard would topple down the stairs, rolling to a stop against the blue shield. They continued to fire into the thick smoke which was only starting to clear from having the rooftop door now open.

* * *

**Struggling against a real set of laser-cuffs,** Fara Phoenix couldn't help but notice that smoke was billowing out of the doorway across the rooftop. Occasionally, a blaster shot's beam lanced through the thick smog and disappeared into the sky above. All around her, she could see the incredible devastation of Shray-Lek. Most of the city was a black, smoldering wasteland. Tiny fires dotted the landscape, giving off the appearance of a sparkling black ocean, where the Capital Building was a lone island. 

In the hazy distance, the ruins of Old City were now the boldest remaining parts of the Fang-Claw district. Her captor had a pistol placed against the base of her neck and she had her communicator in her paw. The look on her face put the two lizards on the rooftop at complete unease. Only a woman could scowl in such a way that someone could feel a fair amount of intimidation even when it was they who held the weapon.

"Get on your hands and knees," The gunman suddenly said, wanting to keep her as low to the ground as possible for his own sake. "Do it!" he shouted.

Fara, reluctantly, moved to her paws and knees, staying low. She was pissed off that she'd let someone sneak up on her while working on the transponder. "That's right," The lizard teased, "I hear you Cornerian vixens love getting down on the ground like that." He poked her heart-shaped rump with the pistol's barrel and that's when Fara lost her cool.

"That's it," She whispered under her breath. She reached down and pulled her makeup compact back out of her front pocket and flipped it open. The mirrored object served to blind the guard behind her simply by angling it so that she could see his face in the mirror and the round reflection of sunlight against his skin that she angled until it was in his eyes. With her other paw, she flipped the Communicator's switch back on, tossed it to the lizard across from her and said, "Catch!" in the Venom language. She then kicked her left leg back, using all the muscle in her powerful thigh to stomp the other lizard in his groin.

While their race was built differently and a groin shot wouldn't have phased most lizards, Fara had pushed her paws against the ground, put all her weight into it as well as all of the power in her legs. The kick was swift and powerful, hitting the guard so hard in a low center of gravity, that he lost his balance and toppled backwards.

He lost his balance, his heel catching against a high tension cable used to secure a lightning rod on the roof. Tripping backwards, the gunman dropped his weapon but was unable to regain his equilibrium. Far too close to the edge of the roof, the lizard let out a high pitched shriek, causing Fara to glance back over her shoulder. She saw his legs and scaly tail upended, as the lizard tumbled backwards, over the edge of the roof. Seconds later, the fading scream came to an abrupt stop.

"She scrambled for the gun which had been dropped by the guard. Seeing that she was getting up and his partner was dead, the lizard across the roof from her quickly threw the communicator to the ground and steadied the blaster in his left hand, making several quick shots. Phoenix rolled to the side, evasively, snatching the gun and coming up in a half-kneeling position with her back straight and the weapon leveled at the other man.

A single shot blasted from the handgun, hitting her opponent square in his right shoulder. He spun about like a top, his arms and legs went outwards and in that instant, he resembled a rag-doll. The shot struck the guard in his armor and so he wasn't wounded, but it still managed to knock him down. His gun skittered over the other side of the rooftop, falling into disuse.

She was suddenly distracted by a blast that came from the open door leading to the stairs. Several reptilian bodies were ejected from the doorway, spewing outwards and crashing back down to the rooftop. She kept the pistol trained on the uninjured soldier laying on his back, approaching him slowly but occasionally glancing over at the door on the other side of the large lighting rod.

She placed her foot against the lizard's neck then lifted her jaw, turning to scrutinize the doorway. Another blast occurred, causing her ears to flicker in discomfort. The bright yellow and red flash was accompanied by another Venom soldier flying through the doorway and landing on the rooftop, motionless. Without further warning, a loud metallic clanging was heard from inside the doorway. It didn't take much to figure out that the stairway must have collapsed on the other side of that door.

The faint cry of a dozen soldiers could be heard in chorus to the clanging metal, causing Fara's brows to furrow. A moment later, a soot-covered, blue haired fox staggered out of the doorway, rubbing at the base of his ears. Behind him, an ashen, fiery headed carrot top stumbled through the door and onto the rooftop. O'Donnell rubbed at his eyes, hunching his shoulders to try and rub at his ears.

"You could have warned me it would be loud, you ass," Crimson scolded in a phlegmy, half-choked voice.

"…What?" Star said, his voice exaggeratingly strident. "My ears are ringing; oh! Yeah, it's going to be loud!" McCloud added after sensing Crimson's words, lingering on the lupine's brain.

"Of all the vociferous vulpines," Fara muttered, keeping her blaster trained on a fallen guard. "You discordant dunces… you raucous rookies could have blown a hole right through this roof and killed us all!" She was attempting to rebuke but her insulting admonishment actually brought about an air of hilarity to the entire situation. She couldn't help it and her eyes began to moisten in a feeble attempt to hold back laughter at the sight of them together.

Crimson threw his arms up in the air, both embarrassed and infuriated by Fara's giggling. "How're we going to get back down to the basement now?"

"There were at least a dozen men coming up the steps," came McCloud's first excuse, followed by, "Another 4 were left at the top of the steps and they were in our path, I might add!"

"Enough!" Crimson shouted, placing his paws over his ears and clinching his eyes tightly. "I'm serious! You could have killed us both! That staff has got to be the deadliest toy to ever touch your paws, I swear!" His scarlet bangs lay haphazardly over his forehead, covering his brows. The otherwise gray-furred man stumbled away from Star, adding, "Get him away from me, he's insane!"

Sensing that Fara was nearly in hysterics over their look and the fact that they just about detonated a very small staircase in order to escape from capture, McCloud couldn't help but chuckle as well. He turned his attention to the vixen and said, "Crimson is mad because he packed his gear bag with nothing but expired explosives. The chemicals were so stale that they did everything _except _blow up!"

Phoenix used one free paw to rub her eyes, gathering her calm demeanor again. "Then what the hell was that double explosion?" Fara asked.

Crimson quickly butted back into the conversation, saying, "He cooked the grenades then threw one up the stairs, into the smoke, and down the stairs at the approaching group. It scared the hell out of them but then they both realized they were holding duds, like the first one that _I_ threw. Then he uses that staff thing and shoots them with that fire-blasting thing built into it! One ruptures with the blast pointing out the door… the other blasts downwards, towards the rest of the staircase!"

McCloud cut in and added, "The staircase collapsed except for the part we were on, which simply dropped, hanging by the concrete ledge on the other side of that doorway. We climbed up and stumbled through the doorway… and here we are."

"You two are something else," Fara mused. "I'm surprised that none of us are dead. Did you two find Oikonny?"

"This building is about to collapse on him," McCloud said. "We should hurry and leave before that happens." He lifted a paw to fluff sapphire strands of hair but an amusing cloud of soot puffed up around him, instead. Fara simply shook her head.

"When you boys get paid, let's put it in a bank," she told them. "I want to sit down and take the next month to properly train you on military procedure. Your hearts are in the right place and your basic instincts and even your ingenuity is just right… but you're going to get all of us killed if you hobble around a battlefield in clown's shoes."

Crimson gawked at the insult then changed the subject. "We've still got to figure out how we're going to get off this roof," He said, clearing his throat to rid it of the dry sounding wheeze in his voice. Suddenly his eyes caught the rest of the city around them. His heart stopped and as he experienced it, Star felt his friend's change of demeanor and looked outwards only to gasp softly.

The Venom Capital city was burning to the ground. That's when McCloud noticed that at least several hundred thousand voices were suddenly quiet. Voices that he normally tried to tune out were no longer present at all. An intense feeling of loss hit him so hard that he collapsed to his knees. Crimson blinked in shock, whirling about to face his best friend. Fara's jaw dropped and she quickly stunned the Venom guard then approached Fox's son.

"What is it?" She demanded, approaching them.

"Almost everyone is dead," Star whispered. It was just loud enough to be heard over the low rumble of the wind, felt upon the rooftop of the Capital Building. "Other than that slob," he continued, motioning to the stunned soldier halfway across the roof, "we're the only living souls for several miles in every direction. All those people… women, children, clergymen… Oikonny's forces can't even distinguish the dead from the dead. He's… truly mad."

"It's not our fight," Crimson reasoned.

"First Venom," McCloud countered. "Then it's Lylat. _This_ could easily be Corneria, next. We have to stop him and we have to stop this new machine that he's started."

"Training comes first," Fara warned. "I don't fly with any pilots. I instruct and I fly with the best. Call your friend, Violet. We'll need a Lombardi's help in this. Look at the devastation, boys," She told them. "This is one city after one afternoon of war. Oikonny made this city a model for the rest of the planet to see. If he survives to escape, he'll have Venom in his fist. We can't allow that."

* * *

A/N: _I was going to take some time and add some detail and change some descriptions before posting this but enough of you guys were waiting for this chapter and you guys wanted to see how things turned out… well they survived as you can see. But things will get weird from here on out. I promise. But in a good way. I begin Chapter 11 with Star asleep two days from now… He'll be having a conversation with the ORACLE. Remember, now that he's 22 in Cornerian years, he's 16 in Cerinian years. Bam. _

_She appears before him and what she has to say may shock some… she's going to tell him how differently things could have been if his mother made her personal life choices differently so that he understands the concept of needing to make good choices of his own. _

_In the new StarFox Command game for the DS, two of the endings include Fox and Krystal having a child and, conversely, Fox never reconciling with Krystal so… you see her with StarWolf wearing Fox's uniform with a yellow scarf. Her face looks about as evil as one could ever imagine. It's kinda freaky. _

_At any rate, it won't be long before chapter 11 is ready. We'll be meeting more of the StarFox Command characters before long, heck we are already! _

_I really wanted to confirm that Ash Bowman IS Andross' grandson before publishing this chapter so… I hope it's true! Hehe. _


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: _At the end of this chapter, I propose a little vote, to see how the readers feel about something._ :)

_Did anyone like chapter 9 and 10? I've not really received any feedback on them and I was rather curious how those chapters made you readers feel..._

_Also, it's time to meet Violet and it's also time for Star to learn a little more about his destiny. As I said, one of the alternative endings in the new StarFox COMMAND has the game ending with Krystal joining StarWolf and becoming EVIL. It's time for the Oracle to explain to Star that anything is possible in life if you play your cards right... this will scare the hell out of him, I assure you. Knowing that it was possible for someone as innocent as his own mother to become evil means that it could happen to ANYone. That'll give him something to think about for a while when he decides to dwell on it later, down the road of life.

* * *

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Chapter -11-

**"Who are you?"** The question posed an irresistible urge to the little old lady facing McCloud. She smiled a bit then looked the boy over carefully which gave him chills. He asked again. "Who are you, ma'am; how did you know my name… where are we?" The last inquiry caused her to offer a bit of a giggle, although her raspy voice did well to hinder the good naturedness of her laughter.

"I am The Oracle," She replied in a polite voice. "I know every Cerinian's name and we're in your mind as I am dead… so you can't possibly be talking to me in the physical world."

"You're …dead?" Star quirked his brow. "I didn't realize I was dreaming. It's hard to distinguish between reality and fantasy when you're mind is unconscious. I don't recall having actual conversations and it doesn't seem possible to have intelligible conversation when you only have your subconscious."

"There are three phases of sleep, my dear," Said the old lady. "Alpha is when you're in a deep relaxation. REM is when you're dreaming and completely unconscious. Then there is a rare but often studied pattern where you're completely conscious and your body is rendered into a state of disuse. It's simply a sort of astral projection and you're on a plane beyond the physical realm, my dear."

He could sense that she understood that of which she spoke. Star was impressed that this little old lady had such a concept of this sort of thing but it felt strange to know that he was, more or less, in a coma back on the GreatFox. "Why am I here?" His eyes carried about, looking at the wooden cabinets and gaudy wallpaper of an old kitchen. There was an oven in the wall and a reasonable amount of cherry smoke in the area which smelled rather wonderful.

She simply smiled. "You're here because I brought you here. There is a great deal you do not know about yourself and you are a boy of 16 years old."

"No ma'am," Star replied. "I'm twenty-two years old."

The Oracle lifted a gnarled old paw and counted on her fingertips. "Hmm, no," She told him. Star cocked a brow at her then she said, "By the math of Cerinia's revolutions around its star, you have lived for a count of sixteen passes, m'boy."

"Are you the Oracle that my mother spoke of?" Star asked, looking around for a chair. There was one near a round table at the far end of the kitchen. He moved to it, gave a slight tug at his trousers then settled into the chair, wrapping his thick brush around his ankles.

"You mother made all the right choices," The woman explained. "She spoke to me on her 16th birthday; the same age as yourself… to the very day, in fact. Had she not made the correct choices in life, you would not be here and all would be lost."

"I don't understand," McCloud said, resting his wrist along the tabletop. The little old woman had a cane and hobbled towards him before sitting down at a chair on the other side of the kitchen table.

"There we go," She said under her breath, shifting her weight to grow comfortable. "These old bones will be with me forever now that I've passed. Anyhow, I want to tell you a little bit about what your mother's life would have been like if she didn't make intelligent choices. She was only partially responsible for the choices she made; after all, her mate has to aid in helping her to make up her mind."

"Can you explain in a manner that is more… direct?" Star felt silly admitting that he had no clue what she was talking about.

"Right before you were born," She began, resting the cane across her lap, "A race known as the Anglors attacked your father's home system. He abandoned his relationship with your mother and she was deeply wounded. So badly was she hurt, in fact, that it sullied her heart. With this selfless act on your father's part, so to was he selfish by not considering her heart, spirit and soul. She was a pure-of-heart girl, confirmed by the tests of another race… the Krazoa. Do you know of them, Star?"

"Yes, I do," He said, adding, "Please don't call me Star. I despise that stupid name."

"Don't be a brat," She scolded. "_I_ chose that name and told your mother to name her first born son Star McCloud. I explained that you would have a birthmark over your face that you would be born with and it would return at puberty. Also, I'm rather fond of it!"

"I… I'm sorry," McCloud said, blinking in confusion. "I had no idea; I thought my parents named me after the stupid birthmark."

"Don't be a silly child!" She retorted in a wheeze of laughter, "That's the symbol! I named you after your destiny, my dear!"

Star fidgeted quietly then asked, "What is my destiny?"

"You'll not find that out just yet; I must teach you about your mother first," She explained, telling him, "Only then will you begin to conceive the depth of life itself. Every choice brings about such a consequence that… should you make the wrong choice it could very well affect the very fabric of time and space itself. If your mother chose poorly, you wouldn't exist and your father would be dead."

The boy blinked, gawking at her. "How so?" He asked in an almost demanding tone of voice.

"I'll provide you with an example," She said. "One possible path for your mother, after your father ended their relationship, was to allow her hurt to consume her. The purity in her heart would be defiled until only the despicably lewd was left and she would kill Fox McCloud and allow her sullied spirit to be assimilated into the ranks of a band of thieves known as StarWolf. Donning a yellow scarf, she would have worn her flight uniform as a mocking reminder of the man she defeated to free her heart of the pain she felt inside at such a deep loss. Her concept of what was true love would be desecrated and she would allow herself and her soul to be thoroughly transformed into a creature of evil."

Star balked, his stomach dropped and his lower lip quivered in absolute silence. His body ached at the thought of his mother in such a way; pain in his chest began to gnaw at him. How could such a path be possible for someone who was so incredibly pure of heart? It took a few moments but his voice was finally found again. "Why am I so important?"

"She was an immaculate soul and last survivor of our race," The elder explained. "Her son, the child born of a Hero, is destined to save us all: Dead and Living alike. There is a force brewing within the heart of Lylat. It is so very evil that it would easily consume all that is good and corrupt even the most light hearted of innocents. Only _you_ and your personal life choices would have an outcome possible of changing that dark future before it becomes history."

Star stood up, gaping at her. "Why me?" He cried, throwing his paws into the air. "I'm not special or important! Do I have some sort of power I don't yet understand? How can I be the one who saves the damned universe? That's bullshit! I'm not a savior!"

"The burden of fighting such an evil is not yours to bear alone," She replied. "However, your personal actions will create enough of a change in this life time that your future offspring will have a fighting chance at survival. Only the genes of your soul mate will create the proper child capable of vanquishing such a foe. That and the responsibility of raising your child will help him and her to accept this task with grace. Your son and daughter _will_ die IF your choices, leading up to their existence, are filled with mistakes. Do you comprehend?"

Star felt partially furious. "Are you telling me that only the right woman will bare the children necessary to save the universe? What kind of malarkey is that?"

"Inadvertently, the wrong life choices eventually hold the power to become the undoing of us all," The Oracle replied. "I suggested to your grandmother to marry a senator. Your mother, Krystal, was born and we continued as a race in the path to your eventual existence. You cannot fathom what a difficult decision that was."

"Pardon?" Star sat back down in his chair, trying to remain calm.

The elderly lady lifted her cane and pointed the handle at him in an accusing manner. "Had she not married a senator, your grandmother would have had a far different set of life choices, which would have changed the decisions made by her mate. She would not been around to have felt partially sympathetic to The Traveler and your grandfather would have barred Andross Oikonny from visiting Cerinia. IF they never married, their line would not have produced Krystal and you would not have been born as you are. Without you, your son and daughter would not exist and this future danger would not be stopped. _More_ would die than just the planet of Cerinia. It was what I explained to your grandmother. Her sympathy and pure nature would ultimately become the salvation of many."

"But how was that a difficult decision?" He asked.

"Because," She replied sullenly. "If Andross was barred from staying on Cerinia, the planet would not have been destroyed by his biological creations. I would still be alive for another half of a century. But ultimately everyone would have died. It's a difficult pill to swallow, I'm sure. But don't think that Cerinia, as a world, died so that others could live… They didn't know it was coming… I'm the only one who saw this and I manipulated the situation by helping youngsters make the right choices necessary to ensure that the correct events came to pass… and now this galaxy has a fighting chance. Many things _do_ happen for a reason. Your life is part of that sequence."

Star gazed down at the table for a moment, trying to think of something intelligent to say. "I don't know what to say about any of that," He replied, shaking his head slowly. "I'm sorry; here I am a twenty-two year old in Katina revolutions, the son of a Cornerian, living a out the lineage of a bloodline that I know nothing about."

"I sense you have other questions," She told him, placing the cane back into her lap.

"Can you tell me about my children?" He asked. "Can you tell me about my parents, Oracle? What about my 'correct' mate?" Star was nervous now.

"Your mother and father were the epitome of love," she began, tilting her head. "They are as mortal as the rest of us and even the purest of heart could be dirtied by hurt and confusion. For them to reconcile meant that she would be healed and for them to bare you as the fruit of their loin would guarantee that both maintained an unadulterated, untainted quality about their hearts and souls. Of course they would never even know that their love was smiled upon in such a way by the Creator. They may have had their differences at times but the power of their love conquered over all obstacles.

"When he placed his hand upon her beating heart, she calmed. When he was unsure, her whisper soothed him. They complimented one another in a way that no one else could possibly understand. Fox McCloud's decision to end the relationship nearly ruined the entire cycle. Only your birth was powerful enough to have saved them from falling apart from hurt; only your birth helped your mother believe in true love once more. You were her saving grace."

Star was silent for a moment. What else could he say? He was just told that his mother would basically have gone evil if he didn't help her heart heal. "I… guess I'm glad I was able to help her. They didn't seem as though they felt that way, though. I don't think they ever felt as if I was part of their personal and mental salvation."

"They didn't simply _know_ that your presence saved their hearts," said the Oracle. "One cannot fathom the depth of what the birth of a child can do to one's humanity. It doesn't affect every person in the same way but someone like your parents … they were deeply moved by the birth of their first child."

"You say that as if I had brothers or sisters, but I don't," Star replied, folding his arms and looking down. "I'm fairly well alone, you know?"

"No," She said, shaking her head slowly. "Not forever. There is hope."

McCloud tilted his head, furrowing his brows. "Are my parents alive in another part of the galaxy with a toddler running around on the bridge?"

"You've asked about your future children and mate," She reminded him. "I only have enough time to tell you about them before I depart. If you mate with the wrong woman, everything will change. You already know in your heart who you truly wish to spend the rest of your life with. She's kind, beautiful and intelligent. You respect her. Your children with that woman will be excitable and fun loving. They will look up at you from the living room floor and smile as you watch over them fondly, playing with their toys. They'll have a strange affinity for sharing with their sibling and smile broadly in the family portraits. But they _will_ make a personal sacrifice that will usher in a new era of peace for Lylat and inadvertently stifle the attempts at evil growing in that system. The evil which I spoke of, earlier…"

"I thought you said that I'm the one saving Lylat from evil," Star sighed softly. "I don't like the idea of knowing that I have no power to fight this impending doom. I don't like the idea of my children being forced to fight something they'll never understand… let alone for them to sacrifice themselves in _any_ way to bring about galactic peace. That sounds far fetched but if it's true, they're being stripped of their freewill choices and being handed a cold fate."

"Life can sometimes be unfair," The Oracle said. "Your life goal, at this time, is to become the best you can be. Defeating a future enemy will force it into dormancy. Your offspring will be the ones to destroy that enemy for all time. I'm sorry that this is a responsibility that you must bare but your lineage is the only one that could change the course of history enough to succeed."

"Will my children's personal sacrifice lead to their death?" Star inquired, closing his paws into fists.

"One of them will die," The Oracle replied in a reverent tone. "It does not matter which, the sacrifice of either sibling will be enough; therefore it will be up to them to decide who must go and who must stay when the time comes."

Star lifted his paw and slammed it on the table. "That's not good enough!" He snapped. "Neither of my children should have to die! That's _not_ fair to them; I don't even know them yet and you're telling me that one of them has to die in order to make things good again? What the hell!" He said, standing up once more. He began pacing through the kitchen, angry in his heart. "I'm glad you've given me hope that my parents are alive but why can't someone else die for this to happen? What if I decide to sacrifice myself?"

The Oracle lowered her nose, swishing her stormy-colored tail about as if in irritation. "I've pondered that, already!" She grumbled, adding, "Nothing changes for the better, should you give your life in their stead."

"Do you know how hard it will be, knowing this?" Star shouted. "What about the first time I hold them in my arms? Knowing that one of them will die and that there is no hope to provide _both_ with a long life?" He cried in anger. "I would be sentencing one to a fated end and the other to depression and guilt over their sibling's death! That's twisted! How can I bring children into this world if I have a guarantee that one will die and the other will suffer?"

"Star McCloud of the Cardinal Sun!" The Oracle barked. "It may very well be the ultimate sacrifice a father can offer to the galaxy to guarantee that peace, prosperity and life as you know it will continue… but you should leave the heroic sacrifice to the child who wishes to accept that responsibility! The child who does this will make that choice when the time comes! You should be honored to know that they will embrace this responsibility with dignity and grace!"

"…No!" Star exclaimed. "Why have you told me this! You carefully crafted relationships and goals, manipulating people with your fortunes in order to control the fates of others… but why couldn't you have lied to me about _this_?"

"Because your life choices must be made carefully!" She bellowed in reply. "Your mother is the last of her line," She began, taking a breath before adding, "Your lineage will continue and your bloodline will not end; but if you make foolish choices in life, especially now… at this critical step, a single generation before the climax, then you'll have ruined everything I've fought to protect! That is why I'm telling you; it's imperative that you become a man as soon as possible!"

Star whirled about, stopping in mid pace. "Then why don't you tell me: Who is my future mate? Who should I choose?"

"One of them was never a choice for _your_ life," The Oracle explained. "She was a '_Choice B'_ for your father. You are young; there is time to 'date around' before you settle down, marry and procreate. Your choices in the present will affect your choices in the future. It's not who you date now but who you marry, several years _from_ now."

"How will I know?" Star muttered.

"Now that I've spoken with you," She said obsequiously, her expression and demeanor returning to that of a polite half-smile, "I can see that my words have had a profound impact on your future."

"Well?" Star asked.

"In the end, you'll make the right choice; it has become clear," she replied. "Now all I ask is that you have confidence in whatever choices you make in between now and the future. As I've said before… date around. The experience you garnish in your personal life will help you to maintain a strong relationship with your future wife. You have a long way to go in the ways of women between now and the day you propose. But once you marry, do not allow yourself to choose a path of infidelity."

"No real man allows himself to cheat," Star snapped, looking proud.

"Even on a twenty year quest to return to his kingdom, his wife and his child," The Oracle said, "Odysseus still allowed himself to be briefly tempted by Circes and Calypso. No matter how much he loved his wife, son and home, he was tempted during his travels… not once… but twice. I grant you _no_ such luxury but assure you that you _will_ be tempted at least once, during your marriage. Stay strong and have faith in yourself."

Star's jaw dropped. He found himself shocked into silence. It took him several moments to regain his voice and when he finally did, he asked, "How do I know that this is real and I'm not simply dreaming this?"

"When you wake up, you'll quarrel with a loved one. It's unavoidable and you'll find yourself baited into the argument. Later, you'll wonder if the fight was avoidable. You'll ask yourself if you had the power to avoid it because you knew it was going to happen or if it happened only because you knew about it. After you mull over the coincidence between this conversation and the future occurrence, you'll realize the truth of the matter and dwell on the fate of your future child's death."

"I've seen brief clips of the future in my dreams before," Star protested.

"Even in death," she muttered, "I do not have time to use my perceptive abilities to prove things to you. I am not here to give you the future score to a sports game or spoil the next surprise awaiting you around the next metaphorical corner," She told him with a firm tone of authority. "I am here to ensure that you are given the opportunity to do what is expected of you in order to ensure that my early death and the end of your entire race… was not a premature and stupid call on my part. When you awake, it will be to the face of an intelligent and beautiful woman. The argument will happen soon after, Star McCloud. Be diplomatic but be smart in how you handle it. You live among allies that will risk _their_ lives so that you will have a future." The kitchen grew dark as if the light in the window was suddenly extinguished.

"...Star?"

"Star, wake up..."

"You sleep like a log, you know," said a voice. "But I must say that I was impressed with the way you boys handled yourself," it continued. "Your friend will be landing on GreatFox sometime within the next hour. If you trust them, then I'll have to learn to do the same." The voice was so familiar.

Star opened his eyes slowly. He was lying in bed, looking up at Fara Phoenix. GreatFox was moving through the ruins of Sector X's outskirts and metallic blocks could be seen floating passed the window of his quarters. Fara was sitting on his bed, not far from his hip, looking over him. It was obvious that the pilot was tired and he vaguely remembered going to lie down after leaving Venom.

Fara paused then smiled, seeing his eyes flutter open. "Why did you kiss me in the conference room?"

"You kissed me on Sauria," Star told her. "It threw me off guard but it was a nice gesture. On the other paw, I was too shy to stick my tongue all the way into your muzzle back in the conference room. I guess I'm not quite as bold, hmm?"

"No, don't get me wrong," Fara replied with a shrug. "Not every kiss requires that. It was nice, really."

Star could sense that she felt awkward and misconstrued it by assuming that she disliked his unprofessional behavior in the field. He immediately apologized. "I'm sorry I let it happen, Miss Phoenix. I was out of line and my actions were not becoming of a professional pilot."

"I didn't say all that," Fara groaned. "You're supposed to be telepathic," She replied. "I don't want to argue about this. I told you that it was nice and that's that."

"No, we're not going to argue about this," Star said, remembering the Oracle's words from the dream he'd just had. He wanted to prove the old woman wrong to test a theory and determine if he was dreaming or if his confrontation was real. "I won't let you argue with me about this. I understand that I was out of line and I appreciate that you're being polite about it."

"No, that's really not what I meant," Fara said, feeling a bit frustrated. "It helped me to realize that saving myself for someone who no longer exists is a silly thing. Whoever I choose to love is still my choice, you know?"

"But that doesn't mean I have to go around kissing my pilots," McCloud explained in a flat tone of voice. "I know better than that."

"Will you drop it all ready?" Phoenix snorted disdainfully. "I told you that the kiss was nice. What more do you want me to say?"

"Nothing needs to be said," Star replied firmly. "I won't disrespect you again, Miss Phoenix. You're a lovely lady and I respect you for your experience, intelligence and, most importantly, your self confidence."

"Oh get over it," she muttered. "It was a kiss, not a one night stand."

"I beg to differ," replied the fox. "I was immature to act like that and I assure you that I respect you in the highest regard." He began to look away, turning his head and lowering his gaze.

"Oh lord," Fara groaned, reaching down to cup either side of his face securely. "You're blowing this entire conversation out of proportion and that leaves me with one choice so that I can better educate you on the difference between conduct and going overboard; simultaneously I'll help you to understand that I wasn't sarcastic earlier and if I was, you'd have known it."

"Oh? Well, you have my attention, now that you're steadying my face," Star said. Fara's thoughts telegraphed another long lecture. He could almost hear the words at this point, about how she felt about the situation and how he was over reacting. Star was shocked when she forwent her speech instead, opting to lean forward and plant another kiss on his maw. Their lips meshed together momentarily, locking the kiss mouth to mouth. As it was once before, her tongue brushed against his own, beginning to dance and swirl together.

The door to his quarters swished open and footsteps were heard but Star was unable to concentrate on the other person. He prepared himself to lash out at Crimson for not knocking but his attention was preoccupied elsewhere.

"Excuse _me_, Star McCloud," huffed an insulted Violet Lombardi, standing only several feet away, now. Both pilots immediately broke the lip-lock, turning their attention to the new pilot.

"I… I thought you were Crimson," McCloud stammered. "I couldn't think; I didn't sense that you were on board!"

"That's because you were too busy sucking face with your new girlfriend," Violet countered, folding her arms. The half-breed feline had the wings of an Avian which sprouted from her back. They fluttered in irritation, wrapping around her body and folded arms acting like a shield to protect her body from the pain of what she considered to be a betrayal. "You told me you still loved me on the communicator but apparently you don't love me enough to keep your tongue out of another woman's mouth."

"Violet!" Star said, sitting up fully. "You broke up with me and I'm not _dating_ Fara. We were just talking, then…" He was cut off again by Violet's jealousy.

"On a first name basis, on a taste-test basis, and that's not to mention getting a lap dance?" Violet hollered, obviously exasperated. "Yes, I know about that; I'm not an idiot, McCloud. You really _love_ me but only when you're between make-out sessions and exotic dancers. So, who is this hussy?"

"This 'hussy'," Fara began, turning to Violet, "Is Fara Phoenix, veteran and ace-pilot of the _new_ StarFox mercenary team. And no, he and I are _not_ dating. What happened was a consensual act between two _adults_. I wasn't under his covers and there was no intent for such an act on behalf of either of us. There is no use being jealous, pilot. Everyone onboard this ship is completely single. I'll see my way to the door," Fara said, turning to face Star for a moment. "My apologies. This time _I_ was out of line." She then made her way to the exit, glancing back over her shoulder.

"Goddess-damned right, you were out of line," Violet snapped, narrowing her eyes and watching the fennec depart. "Stay out of his bedroom," She said. The Fe-l'avian then turned back to McCloud and added, "And you: keep your dick in your pants, mister McCloud. Either that or stop telling me you love me, you chode."

"Those parables were _far_ from warning me!" Star muttered. "She could'a just came right out and said this would happen so I could have avoided it!"

"Oh, there's another woman involved, too?" Violet said, throwing her paws up into the air. "I had _no idea_ you were this out of control!" At the other end of the room, Fara shook her head then slipped out into the hallway with a sigh. Such a nice moment … ruined by an angry, jealous ex-girlfriend. While Fara felt the girl had no right to interrupt, Phoenix decided that it was better to drop it and walk away from the entire situation all together.

She wasn't trying to become McCloud's new boyfriend; she was just doing something for herself that hadn't happened in a very, _very_ long time. In a twisted sort of way, it was a therapeutic means to help her finally get over Fox Junior, after all these years. The thing was, she couldn't just kiss any guy… it had to be someone she trusts. Apparently, she trusted Star.

Back in McCloud's personal quarters, the two were immediately arguing about who the Oracle was and why he'd never mentioned her before. She felt betrayed by believing his words of love over the communicator the other day and was angry to have walked in on her ex-boyfriend sucking face with another woman. She had come to the GreatFox to reconcile her relationship, not to secure an employment application.

To Violet, helping McCloud's team was a bonus as part of the relationship, _not_ the other way around. But now she was here and he _still_ needed her help as a pilot and mechanic. The argument would continue for more than half of an hour, despite McCloud's repeated attempts of apology. Meanwhile, the GreatFox cruiser changed destination, heading for Katina to collect the payment for their job on Sauria.

It would certainly prove to be a long remainder of the evening. Fara had no intention of sleeping with a crew member but at the same time, this new addition to the crew was _not_ going to chase her away from being an important part of this team. For some reason, Phoenix felt like she belonged here. That reason had nothing to do with Star, the kiss _or_ Fox McCloud. She wasn't about to let herself get a reputation as the squadron pump, either.

Fara decided that she would personally confront Violet Lombardi on this issue, later. The best, most mature thing she could think to do was to talk to the other girl and resolve the issue, in the near future. Fara decided that the best time to do it would be shortly after the arrival and re-departure from Katina. Deep down inside, Fara always wanted to fly with StarFox when Fox McCloud offered her to leave the military. This was her chance to make things right and _no body_ was going to run her off over a man, especially one she had no current intentions of mating.

* * *

**Sitting up in bed,** Violet drew the covers from her sleek and slender form then stretched the angelic wings upon her back, brushing the sheets from her flesh and fur. Soft scarlet rays of Solar could be seen through the window, bathing her in their sublime radiance. Her paw lifted, brushing against the controls on the wall, polarizing the window to dim its magnificence. 

She pivoted on the mattress, placing her hind-paws upon the floor then, with a push from her wings, she rose to a standing position. Her mind wondered back to last night and she reflected on how angry she was when she finally managed to retire. A tinge of guilt plagued her heart at the way she behaved and her eyes immediately lowered to the floor. "This isn't a competition," She whispered softly. "I left him but I'm not beyond reconciliation," She reassured herself, beginning to stretch. She knew what she had to do.

These quarters needed to be cleaned and rearranged but that could be done later. With a graceful sweeping motion, she moved through the bedroom, scooping up her clothing from the floor. Until she laundered them, they would go into a chair in the living room section. Her duffle was by the coffee table, holding fresh clothes.

Her shirts were specifically designed to button above the shoulder blades so that she could wear a form fitting blouse or shirt with her wings. Where some half-breed Avians her winged arms, she was different. She carried the garment into the bathroom and hung them over a rail above the sink. Violet opened the frosted door and pressed her furry fingertip into a square button on the wall. Shower water poured into the rectangular unit and within minutes, a steamy fog was hovering just over the tiles.

There were no such things as 'simple hygiene' procedures for Violet Lombardi. The silky feathers of her wings required one solution to give them a glossy, strong shine. It helped with molting problems and kept her from cleaning feathers in her wake. The other solution was used for her fur, keeping her coat shiny; it reduced shedding and kept her body soft to the touch.

Her hair was another monster all together. Those absolutely beautiful tendrils of cobalt mixed with strands and natural highlights of indigo swirled about with flits of lilac feathers. Most any gentleman fox held her irresistible but remained at a distance due to the potency of her temper. Star McCloud had no fear of her personality, however. In fact, he loved her for who she was, regardless of his foolish endeavors on the previous evening.

Violet was a self confident, impressively educated young woman. She was academic and mechanical, sometimes citing her own clever metaphors constructed from history or classic literature. She was the epitome of sharp and a mechanical genius. As a young girl, Slippy Toad gave her an appreciation for all things perfunctory. It interested her to see how a machine was able to do its job unyieldingly and without upset.

On a deeper level, Lombardi felt that her ability to create and repair machines helped balance her. They were the Yin to her Yang. Where she was emotional and temperamental, her creations and her mechanical hobbies were able to provide her life with the balance she strived to acquire. Sometimes she was even jealous of a machine for being able to perform its duties without feeling insulted or hurt.

Also, she preferred machines to people at times because they were more reliable and honest in a sense. She learned to respect a fighter and a hydraulic pump over boys when she was in high school. No machine would ever out perform another machine just so it could spread its seed like the average male. It wasn't that she disliked men, she was simply able to respect a machine over a breathing person, no matter what their gender was.

She knew that she was also far from perfect. Violet knew that perfection was not something she would ever achieve do to the fact that she was as flawed as the next person. She also knew that she had to apologize to both Star and Fara to make things right. She wanted to be dependable and stable, after all. It wasn't whether or not Violet Lombardi was the epitome of stability; she just didn't want to appear angry and jealous.

Lavender locks cascaded down over her shoulders, formfitting to her body under the shower nozzle's mesmerizing heat. For some reason a shower had become a ritual for her. She was able to escape her tense body, letting her muscles relax. It was more than simply achieving cleanliness, as Violet simply loved to soak. The heat of the water washed away her day's sin. It was able to cut through the day's dirt and grease and, most importantly, it invigorated her and balanced her mood. She would always step from the shower a renewed woman with a sense of purpose and reality.

The slow roll of the soap-filled puffy sponge felt like a massage against her thighs, scrubbing away the old day and it stains left on her soul. She often wondered if a machine could ever feel this alive after a power washing and fresh lubricant. She made a mental note to ask ROB about that, later. For now, she simply basked in the moment.

Feeling clean and refreshed, she brushed the door open and approached the thermal intensity moisture evaporation drying unit or 'TIME Dry' machine built into the wall. The typical 'time dry' took less than 30 seconds and worked by standing on a pad in the corner of the area. It drew normal water-based moisture from the physical body without harming the natural body oils, leaving fur and feathers at their most radiant. It was also the quickest way to be fully dried off before getting dressed.

Once she was ready, the Fe-l'avian dressed accordingly and departed her personal quarters. She had to find which of the remaining quarters belonged to Fara. She had her choice between two rooms and so she opted for the first one she came to. The door wished open and she stepped into the dark den, sniffing at the air. A moment of repose followed before she decided that this particular den was in use by Crimson O'Donnell. She turned back for the door only to freeze in her tracks when she heard his voice.

"Leaving without saying hello?" He asked, his voice cutting through the darkness. "I'm surprised you came back for him."

"He said he loves me," she replied over her shoulder, turning to face the exit. "Just because times have been rough on our relationship doesn't mean it's over forever."

"I heard about last night," He added, shaking his head slowly. "Why in the hell did you bring up the stripper? That wasn't something he even wanted to do," Crimson told her. "I may not be telepathic but it was obvious that he felt awkward about it."

"That's good to know, Crimmy." She paused then told him, "How's your sister?"

"Well enough, I suppose. I rarely speak to her. The next time I do, however, I'll tell her you said hello."

"Do that," Violet said with a weak smile. "I'm sure she still hates my mother but she and I have never really had a reason to butt heads."

"True," Crimson replied with a nod. "Yeah, I'll tell her. Listen, about Mack… He _does_ love you, by the way. Just chill out and you guys will do fine together."

"Thanks," Violet said, stepping back into the hallway. The door swished shut behind her with a soft tapping sound at the end of its closing motion. The next room was directly across the hall and so Lombardi approached it. The proximity sensor caused the doors to swish open, welcoming the half-breed to step inside. Violet gave a sniff, glancing about the well illuminated room. It was obvious that this side of the ship was still bathed in sunlight as it provided the room with an ambient cheerfulness. Fara's scent was present, coming from the bedroom.

Inside, Fara Phoenix was trying her paw at something new. She was attempting to paint as a hobby. Careful brushstrokes delicately danced over the furniture, trying to properly restore the wooden bureau to its nature antique beauty. There was a soft tapping at the bedroom door. "Enter," She called out, keeping her attention on her work.

The door swished open but Fara kept her eyes on the brush, gently working through the groves of the intricate woodwork of one of the handles. She couldn't really smell anything over the paint and the loud hum of the powerful air filter filled the room with an ambient noise. In the background, soft music was playing but it was difficult to immediately discern the genre.

"I came to apologize," came the voice of Violet, from behind.

"You beat me to it," Fara replied, keeping her attention on the woodwork. "I'm almost finished restoring this thing. From what I understand, it belonged to Fox McCloud's grandfather. Anyhow, I didn't mean to interfere in your relationship and I had no business degrading myself just because of my silly inability to grow beyond my desire for the past."

"And he was free to do as he pleased in a sense," Violet replied, approaching the fennec. "I uh… I still don't like it. I mean, I know I'll react the same way if I ever catch it happening again but I broke up with him so technically it's my fault. I'm just very… possessive over him, you know?"

"I suppose I can understand why, if you feel about him the way I grew up feeling about Fox." Fara paused then said, "I suppose I should actually apologize to Star for using him to help me get over another man."

"Don't you think that's a little weird?" Violet frowned. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound rude."

"No, I suppose you're right," Fara replied, setting the brush down on a paper mat that covered part of the floor. "It was short of leading him on just to help myself get passed personal problems. All I'm doing is incorporating my problem… my personal baggage… onto someone else. He's younger than I am and doesn't understand that I was doing that for myself and it was unprofessional and silly. So, friends?"

"Ah," Violet face-faulted. "Let's keep it strictly business for now. I don't mean to be the kind of girl who holds a grudge but I suppose I have to get to know you. But yes, I would like a truce while I sort out my own 'silly' feelings."

"Fair enough," Fara said, turning around to Lombardi. She offered her paw and Violet took it. The two participated in a quick yet firm handshake and the issue was resolved, for now. "You're probably wondering why it was Star and not some other man. I suppose my excuse is simply that I wouldn't kiss Crimson, I trust Star and he's got those McCloud paws. Girlish of me, I know. I didn't really know you guys had a history, either."

"It's cool," Violet said. "Let's just drop it. So, do you use a paintbrush often?"

"No, not really," Fara told her. "But this is a beautiful dresser and I thought it was a shame to see it in such a state of age. I've never done this kind of stuff before so I looked up the basics on the Sub-Space Internet and looked around in the hold for some supplies. I found everything I needed down in the belly. What kind of hobbies grab you?"

"Flying like yourself," Violet answered earnestly. She then shrugged and said, "I have this strange adoration for machines. It's weird, I know but I like to build that kind of stuff. If not yet met ROB but I intend to, later on."

"ROB could use a good tune up," Fara noted.

"How would you know for sure?" Violet didn't mean to sound rude but she was well aware that many machines ran their own self diagnostic and some even had the ability to self service themselves.

"He looks like it," rebuked the vixen. "He's a rusty tin can anymore. He's on the bridge but he needs some serious work."

Violet held her paws outwards, defensively. "All right, all right, sorry I asked. I look at him," She said. "I have a temper problem, I'm just trying to keep it in check. I know I have it, just lend me some leeway and I'll work it out myself. Sound good?"

"You're fine," Fara chuckled, looking over her shoulder to offer the younger woman a polite smile. "Honest."

"Okay, well," Violet trailed off for a moment, fidgeting. "I'm glad we spoke and resolved everything. I'd better go take a look at the bridge and pay a visit to ROB. By the way," She continued, side stepping so that she could see Fara's face. "In the spirit of starting over, I'm Violet Lombardi."

"Fara Phoenix," replied the fennec. "It's nothing two civilized adult women can't handle, right? After all, we're the only females aboard this ship. We kinda have to stick together, right?"

"Women can also be the most temperamental," Violet mused with an honest air. "I'll do my best to live up to thee…ah… whole 'most mature gender' thing. Ah, see you around." Her eyes flitted over the furniture then back to Fara. She gave a wan smile then left the room.

Once they were out of hearing range of one another, Fara muttered under her breath. "I thought Star said she radiated with self confidence. What a weirdo."

Out in the hallway, Violet shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Now _that_ was like talking to a brick wall," She scoffed. "I'm trying to get over Fox McCloud, gee hold on while I paint his grandfather's old furnishings. All right, Violet; give it a rest, she's _not your enemy_, girl!" Lombardi said to herself.

"That's good to know," came a voice from behind. Violet didn't recognize the male voice so she turned around, coming face to face with a walking, talking dinosaur. Her eyes widened and her tail fluffed up. Her feathers ruffled and the fur on her neck stood on end.

"By the creator, you are the ugliest pet I've ever seen," Lombardi croaked in shock. "Are you from Sauria? What in the hell are you doing here?"

"I was here first," Tricky chided. "Are you the girl that Star really likes? I don't like your wings," he told her, reminded of the Cloud Runner tribe. "I'm King Tricky of the Earth Walker tribe. Your name is… Purple, right?"

"No, close I guess," She muttered with a frown. "I'm _Violet_ Lombardi. I was on my way to the bridge to take a look at ROB. I have a feeling that he's going to be the only one that I can relate to on this ship. Are you her temporarily or are you a part of this team?"

"Oh no," Tricky thunder with a grin. "I'm _definitely_ a member of STARFOX. Fox made me an honorary member, personally. I've got a pendant to prove it!"

"That's… cute." Violet gave a polite smile. "I suppose you're not such a bad guy, just a little hyper."

"Hyper huh?" Tricky said uncomprehendingly. He did a strange little dance, bounding about on each of his four large feet. Violet's brows furrowed, watching him act in a way that only proved her to be right. "I guess I can live with that!" Tricky said then asked, "Can you cook?"

"…Pardon?" Lombardi blinked, not understanding where such an inquiry was coming from. "In general or are you trying to tell me that you're hungry?"

"We brought Grub-Tub mushrooms and they're really good if you cook them first!" Tricky announced, giving that large tail a swish. It left dents in the metallic bulkheads on either side of the corridor, causing Violet to retreat a few steps back.

"I'm not a very good cook," She admitted softly before adding, "I could program ROB to cook, if you want. I was… just on my way to see him," She said.

"Neat!" Tricky replied. "Are you going to take him apart? I was curious what the inside of a robot looks like."

"Oh, well… let's make an appointment. I don't know how much work he needs right now and I'm still kind of waking up, so I like to be alone, if you don't mind."

"Oh… okay," Tricky grumbled, sounding dejected. "Maybe some other time then, huh?"

"Sure that sounds great," Lombardi said, hesitantly reaching out to pat him on the head like a large pet. "See you around… incidentally, how can you speak our language?"

"This," Tricky said, lifting his right foot, showing her the translator strapped to his leg. "I guess I'll find someone who can let me into the storage room so I can eat. Buy, purple fairy-bird lady!"

"It's Violet!" She corrected.

"I like mine better," Tricky laughed, obviously in a playful mood.

Her head tilted and she decided on a pleasant yet slightly pleading voice. "Just call me by my name, please?"

"Nah," Tricky said, smiling brightly.

"Violet!" She told him firmly.

"I'm not doing it!" Tricky cried out the way he occasionally did as a kid.

"Geeze," she grumbled, turning back towards the rest of the hallway. She stalked off towards the bridge, using her paws to smooth her fur and feathers while shaking her head. Already she'd butted heads with just about everyone this morning. It was to the point where she couldn't wait to have time alone with her tools and ROB just to get away from this morning's insanity.

* * *

A/N: _I love a little drama, don't you. :D_

_So if you were in Star McCloud's shoes… who in the world would YOU want to date at this point? Violet isn't as bad as she appears to be, she's intelligent and loves Star to death. She may easily feel betrayed at times but having tender feelings isn't necessarily bad. Fara on the other hand still can't make her mind up about what she wants… but she's established and down to earth. Both are hot, one has huge ears, the other has huge wings. One's a vixen, the other is an angelic- winged catgirl. Me-yow. _

_Both have enough of their daddy's money to live on for a long time (even though Fara's daddy left more money, neither are broke and both invest XD) _

_  
So, out of curiosity… who would YOU choose? _

-kit


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: _Some of you will NOT understand what's about to happen in this chapter. Others, it will hit you pretty hard. I've drawn a piece of this story from one of the ACTUAL outcomes from StarFox Command DS. That's right, there are a LOT of endings. If you look up Nightshade64, he has a website that documents 9 of those endings. Some are good endings, some are evil endings, some involve canon-character deaths. Some involve canon-characters switching sides. We're going to delve into that realm of possibility and by the next chapter, hopefully find some sort of closure for it. When the dust settles after this second mission, poor Star will have emotional trauma to bottle up.

* * *

_

Chapter -12-

**Crimson O'Donnell and Star McCloud** found themselves on the bridge of the GreatFox II dreadnaught, counting money and crunching numbers. Fara was present, as well as Violet, ROB and Tricky. The fennec was sitting at a chair on the far end of the bridge, figuring out expenses against earnings to determine profit. Finally, she turned about and faced those present on the bridge. Everyone glanced up, expectantly.

"Well, for our first mission, we did pretty darn well," Fara said much to the relief of everyone in the room. "Most teams are lucky to break even on their first mission. We would have had more if we brought Andrew in but Sauria has confirmed to the Mercenary Guild that their water is beginning to thin out and the killings have stopped over the last few days which, it seems, is enough. We're in the black on profit, after paying off our expenses, by nearly Twenty Thousand Credits. That's because there was _interest_ paid on the mission because no one had been able to complete it, plus we were paid one third of a Killer's reward and given a finders fee for discovering the identity of the culprit."

"That's damn good," O'Donnell mused, rubbing at his chin. "See, Mack? Aren't you glad I shoved this mission down your throat last week?"

"I have to admit," Star said, rather pleased by the amount, "I was wrong, Red. So, what do we do with our money, Fara?"

"Supplies and ship repairs," She said, counting down a finger on each paw. "Plus savings for future expenses, so let's open up a bank account. We have a lot of paperwork to fill out and we have to re-register the ship, the fighters and all the weapons. I suggest having a legal specialist to come out here and do an inventory and pay him a small fee to take care of all that stuff for us." She ticked off two more fingers on her paw then announced, "We're at eight thousand credits for supplies, ship repairs and filing everything to re-establish the team. We have to trademark the name and logo… there's a lot of work involved."

"We need to advertise ourselves," Crimson chimed in.

"Very good idea," Fara replied. "Violet, do you have any thoughts or suggestions?"

The half avian, half feline glanced about then placed a pensive digit to her lower lip in thought. She then said, "What about more fighters? If we crash one, we're stuck in the water… not to mention we only have mine and one more out on the flight deck. Once the team is established, we should apply for a business loan and write off the fighters as an expense, plus any backup planes."

"Noted," Fara replied with a nod. "I'll look into calling a Customer Service Representative at Space Dynamics in the morning." She then turned back to the boys and asked, "Star? Crimson? What's our next move, gentleman?"

O'Donnell tilted his head and said, "I kinda like being able to say we're the go-to team for impossible missions. No one was able to stomp out Sauria's problem but we did. We should look for our next _difficult_ task."

"We should train first," Fara replied, turning to Star. "Duly noted, of course, Mister O'Donnell. StarFox could easily become the best of the best again but that will take time. We also need more ships, like Violet suggested. But we need more money. We're far from being able to use nothing more than our reputation and word as collateral. So, what about you, Star?"

Star glanced around the room then said, "We should at least look into our next ground mission. If we play our cards right, we can line up some small jobs for extra cash, just to stay profitable. I'll call 'The General' and see what we can line up that doesn't require an entire flight squadron."

"Go ahead and get started on that," Fara said, turning to Crimson and Violet. "We should rent something or at least get started on securing some fighters so we can start training, too."

"I have to agree with that," Violet mused thoughtfully.

Meanwhile, Star approached the communications terminal and opened a channel to Bill Gray. Bill opened his personal communicator on the other end and said, "Acting General Gray here… Oh, hey McCloud. I heard you guys completed your Sauria mission and closed it out. Congratulations on your first job. Things are a little busy here … is there something I can help you with?"

"What's your two largest headaches right now, General?" McCloud asked.

Bill touched a paw to his chin in thought then said, "Andrew's rabblerousing on Venom and some mysterious, classified occurrence on Fichina. Why?"

"The Andrew thing is out of my paws right now," Star replied. "I am securing the paperwork for the team and trying to obtain fighters with a new business loan which is going to be tough because the team has been disbanded for so long that it doesn't have mature credit, not to mention that GreatFox is the collateral."

"So what's your point, young man? Are you sniffing for light duty work?" Gray asked.

"Mind if I look into your Fichina problem, General?" McCloud tilted his head slightly then added, "I'll sniff out your mystery and fix your problem, Sir. Mysteries have a difficult time holding up when a Telepath is involved."

The Greyhound glanced around with furtive eyes then said, "Stand by, please. I'm going to put you on hold." The remaining StarFox team turned to face McCloud who simply shrugged.

"Remember not to be too pushy," Fara said. "If he gives you trouble, I'll talk to him. Bill could never do anything but blush when I talked to him. Violet," She said, turning to Lombardi. "I need to take a look at your ship later. We'll register it with the team's paperwork which will make your registration fee less expensive. I also want to get Crimson into a cockpit and see his flying abilities."

"What about me?" Tricky interjected.

"Don't you have a planet to run? Being King and all," Fara said, trying to be as polite as possible. "Your planet is recovering from a Serial Killer and a water supply with the viscosity of gelatin. Don't you think they need you?"

"I… guess," Tricky lowered his head a bit. "A good leader wouldn't abandon their people for a simple adventure with his friends."

"Excellent," Fara replied. "We'll get you back to Sauria so you can take care of your business as soon as possible. I really want to get a lawyer out here, also. It'll help us make sure all our legal work is done correctly and submitted properly. They can have someone appraise everything on the ship so we can document it and try to have a larger collateral amount."

Suddenly their attention was drawn back to the flutter of the hologram over near Star. The General's face returned and Star offered a nod. Bill noted Fara who approached, standing behind Star and looking into the holographic video recorder, resting her head on Star's shoulder much to Violet's displeasure.

"Ah, Fara Phoenix. You've not aged at all," he said then immediately changed his tone to a professional business voice. "Listen, I'll do you guys a favor if you do me a favor. Here's the situation…"

"We're all ears, General," Star said, leaning back in his chair.

"Great," Bill said then told them, "This is weird and normally I would scoff at this sort of fairy tail but when Peppy was General, there was a small occurrence on Fichina, involving some sort of paranormal activity where 5 people mysteriously died. Workers who kept the planet's environmental controls in check started dying. What I'm about to tell you is classified and it's not a joke. A young female Collie was sent to that planet with her military mother. This happened a year before the Anglor race even surfaced. The mother was killed in a laboratory experiment on particle acceleration and the girl was never found by the military team. A year later, on the anniversary of her mother's death, the girl reappeared in the base but was never actually sighted on the surveillance footage. Five people died four more went missing."

"What's the modern problem?" Star asked. He then made an assumption, asking, "Is she back, killing workers again? We've fished out one serial killer; I don't mind adding another one to my list."

Bill frowned. "What I'm about to tell you is classified and it's become the butt of jokes in this office but it's a serious problem, as five more people were reported dead today."

"Go on," Star replied.

Bill nodded then began to speak. "There is a hospital on base which has a small psychiatric ward for over-stressed townsfolk. It's rarely used anymore but it was put into use for some of the men who have crossed paths with that girl. Every one of them make the same claim and none of those men knew one another. They said she had the power to brainwash someone, use them, and then kill them when they outlived their usefulness. This sounds like the plot of a bad amateur movie but we have older surveillance footage of men literally disappearing on this digital footage at the precise moments that bystanders claimed they fell under her strange power. I would normally tell you to avoid this situation and let the military deal with it but if that the girl suddenly showed up again on a quarter-century anniversary… Let's just say I'm willing to dispatch a telepathic mercenary to combat the situation. There is one thing, however…"

"I'm listening, Sir," Star said. By now, Violet and Crimson were making their way over to listen in on this bizarre conversation.

William Gray placed his paws together and took a slow breath before continuing. "Because this is a paranormal problem, the funding for your mission will be Government, not military… unless it's a terrorist hoax. As you know, Corneria's pact provides Fichina with its police force as a training ground for our infantry. This will be a mission for Corneria but you'll _still_ answer to me and make all your mission updates through the Secretary and myself.

"Your mission is to ascertain if there is a real paranormal threat or if there is some sort of serial killer controlling our surveillance gear, who is reenacting this strange past phenomenon and killing military workers and townsfolk near the base. There were several sightings of a young Collie around the age of 12, stalking the area. I have two chicken-hearted eyewitnesses and their stories match up. These two men both abandoned their posts to escape from her and these disruptions are hindering particle acceleration research on a new Cornerian weapon. With that place scattered, Venom could easily strike the nearly defenseless base and acquire the research and use it against us."

"Do you want this killer dead or alive, General?" McCloud's question posed an interesting reply for General Bill Gray.

"Listen," Gray told the group who was now huddled around the holographic projector. "If she's not capable of being interrogated, do not go out of your way to capture her. Don't make me regret helping you out. Play your cards right and don't rush in and get yourself hurt… or worse."

"I think I saw this in a movie once," Star replied. "Little dark haired girl is this paranormal killer who freaks everyone out then kills them. What we seem to have here is a scam artist who likes stupid horror movies," McCloud explained. "I'll get to the bottom, sense their next move and we'll strike with precision. I appreciate this chance, General."

"Also, you can add me, personally, to your credit application," Gray said. "This is a favor and you can pay me back later. But you'll need Arwings _before_ you do this mission, as well as a LandMaster tank. So acquire your gear _before_ setting off to Fichina. One more thing: while you're there, do me a favor and check out a strange disturbance in the atmosphere. There's a fluctuation in the atmosphere, it was reported just a few days ago and if your black box recorders pick up anything, please send a report on those findings. This is Acting General William Gray, over and out." The holographic picture distorted for a moment before disappearing.

"Well, you heard the General," Star said with a bright grin. "He's going to help us obtain the business loan by letting us put down "General of the Cornerian Fleet" as a credit reference. We're set!" He exchanged a high-five with Crimson, who looked about as happy as possible.

Violet, who happened to be a deep believer in the haunted and abnormal world of magic and other fancy things, turned to the rest of them and said, "I think we should splurge just a bit and hire a paranormal expert to go with us. I want to ensure our personal safety and having a paranormal expert will help to prove or disprove this as a hoax when we expose it."

"Fara?" Star turned to the fennec.

"I don't see why not," Phoenix replied. "Personally, I only believe in the real and possible. Ghost stories don't concern me. However, if this person is responsible for some sort of contagious lunacy, it would be wise to hire some sort of field expert to have more cards in our deck."

"Crimson?" Star asked, turning to his friend.

O'Donnell shrugged and said, "It sounds to me like an expense that we won't be able to write off. But if we're eventually going to be the richest Mercenary team in Lylat, it shouldn't much matter."

"Ah, your optimism has returned," Star replied with a grin. "We'll find one on the Sub-Space internet. Fara, you're with me, we're going to take a day-trip to Corneria. I'll call you two later when we need pilots to bring back ships. Feel free to relax until we get back."

Violet frowned, narrowing her eyes. Star immediately sensed her jealousy and turned to face her directly. He put his paw on her shoulder, looking into her eyes. "Trust me. She's able to fly these ships, test them out and has the most mature credit here because she comes from a rich family. I'm making calls as a _leader_, not with my…"

"…_Peter_," Violet muttered under her breath. "Whatever; go about your business McCloud. I'm just being silly and I'm sorry. I know you won't be with her while you're down there."

"That's right," McCloud replied. "I'm going to file papers with a lawyer to secure the team's status as a business enterprise. Fara will be picking up fighters and we'll pay off her credit debt with the Business Loan when it arrives. We're a team, sweetheart."

"I know, I know," Violet said, shaking her head. "I get silly sometimes, I'm sorry. Everything is fine, I trust you, Star." She reached her own paw upwards and cupped the side of his muzzle then afforded him with a soft smile. "I'm going to run some errands for the team. You can have Crimson tractor back two fighters with a tow-beam." She then turned to O'Donnell and said, "Make sure you re-route power so that your tractor manifold doesn't overheat. My father did that once and it nearly killed Star's mother. I'm going to take Tricky with me so I can drop him off on Sauria then I'll swing back by Fichina and take some reconnaissance photographs of the base with my personal ship."

"I'm not so sure separating the team like that is always best," Fara mused thoughtfully.

"I kinda disagree," Star replied. He could immediately sense that Violet was glad he didn't agree with the fennec for once. McCloud continued into his explanation, saying, "Violet is an immensely capable pilot. Whether or not it's all in her blood, I don't know but this girl is a regular badass in the cockpit. We're not splitting up the team so much as covering more ground. The team needs to learn to trust in one another and know that we have capable pilots here who can be counted on if they're going to gather intelligence. This will only help us figure out where to land, what the layout and weather patterns are like and piece together our side-mission of determining any information about the atmospheric fluctuation from the other day."

"Well," Fara offered a soft smile. "You're not only the leader of this group, but now you're making calls with the judgment of a leader; I can respect that. If we're trying to establish trust in other pilots here, then all I can do is concede and trust your judgment and her abilities. So out of sheer curiosity, what're _you_ going to be doing Crimson?" She turned her gaze back to O'Donnell, tilting her head slightly.

O'Donnell gave the fennec a dubious look. "I'll wait for you guys to call me so we can start transporting these brand new fighters to the GreatFox, _of course_."

Fara's grin started to tug into a genuine smile. "Maybe I'm not going to be teaching a bunch of amateurs after all. I see you were listening all along."

The half-lupine replied with a toothy grin then said, "Tried to catch me with a little test, huh?" O'Donnell chuckled. He then turned back to ROB and asked, "And what about you, dude?"

"Piloting the GreatFox, _of course_," ROB said, attempting to use the same mannerisms and tone that Crimson used, mocking his phrase with a subroutine program designed for some measure of satire and sarcasm. This reply caused Violet to chortle as her love of machines was only confirmed again and again.

"We're all set then," Fara stated in a decisive manner. "Star, let's go. I'm going to leave Crimson the Arwing just incase of an emergency. I suggest we utilize the Phoenix Transportation Company; I'll check the schedules online and contact the nearest ship to deviate slightly and we'll meet up with it for a pickup."

* * *

On Fichina…

**Krystal sank into the knee-deep snow, collapsing onto her side**. She was freezing in this weather and yet she knew that she had no other alternative but to continue on even though part of her didn't want to persist any further. She was only a kilometer from the next town's border and yet all she could think about is how she got here.

She recognized the planet. It shouldn't even be possible but here she was on Fichina, freezing her tail off. She lay there in the snow for a moment, ducking beneath the colder wind and letting the gust pass. After a few moments, she forced herself back up and continued walking again. All she could do was reflect on what had just happened.

She remembered only a few days ago she was waging a war against Corneria, the last planet in the Lylat System to oppose her. She had sensed something out of the ordinary involving Corneria. They were plotting something on a major scale then confirmed their actions, telegraphing it through their fleet maneuvers. She recalled that they had moved to flank her battle group. They caught up with her and her ship was attacked over the empty space where Fichina _used_ to be before it was destroyed in the Post-Anglor War.

The cobalt colored vixen narrowed her eyes spitefully. "Those two morons, the children of Peppy Hare and Slippy Toad; I should have killed them during my initial quest for vengeance," She spat. "They're fools to think they could have killed me with a gravity detonation device. I _know_ they were behind it… I could sense it. They'll pay dearly."

She trudged on, keeping her head low to stave off a bit of the wind. The whipping snow battered her ears and hair; visibility was limited. Since mysteriously arriving on Fichina, she stopped at the first township she came across. There was a base on the edge of the horizon and she was quick to decimate it. Her powers had grown tremendously in the days since Fox broke her heart and left her. She was glad to have joined with StarWolf in the days after his hurtful actions but even StarWolf couldn't hold her attention for very long. She had been alone ever since, consumed by anger and a bitter heart.

Once upon a time, Krystal was the girl who was pure of heart. She found her way to Lylat, sensing distress then accepted the tests of the Krazoa and proved herself as pure and worthy. That was gone now. Ever since Fox broke from her, things have been different. She always sensed that he loved her which meant his actions were proof that True Love wasn't real. It sullied her sentiments and defiled her delusions of what true happiness could be like.

When Fox died, she was angry. When StarWolf died, she was bitter. Every action _she_ made caused her to grow angrier. Her humanity dwindled and her tarnished spirit turned black with corruption. Krystal had quickly realized that her powers could be used to outsmart her enemies, making it easy for her to get her way. Lylat succumbed to her whim before long and Corneria was all that remained on her list.

Fichina should have been destroyed. A few years ago, while in a capricious mood she saw to its complete destruction, as well as the total annihilation of Sauria. How she wound up back on this planet was an enigma to her but she had to push on to garnish answers. Her fighter was abandoned back at the base. For some strange reason, the power supply on the base was not compatible with her machine. As odd as it may have been, their power supply was far more advanced than anything else she'd ever come across in the Lylat System.

Her tormented trek took her to the second residential dome, undetected. She made use of her powers, probing the population within to learn of a way into the city without passing through the main gates. It didn't take long to find a sewage entrance, used as exhaust. She took the staff from her back and wedged it deep into the powdery snow. Calloused palms still hosted delicate digits which tightened, firmly gripping the shaft. It launched upwards, along the side of the dome, to the large pipes that jutted from the concrete surface.

She snatched the rim of a sewage drain and began to pull herself up inside of it. It wasn't long before she was squirming her way through the tunnels, used only as a release of carbon dioxide. The further she went, the warmer it felt, helping her to thaw. However, she was feeling fairly lightheaded as she progressed further into the network of pipelines.

Not many could have survived that trek in the snow between domes but Krystal had become quite the woman in the last two and a half decades. Without another Telepath to counter her, she was hailed as undefeatable. Corneria thought they could stop her vengeance but here she was, living and breathing. She was cursed to survive every battle since the day _he_ broke her spirit as a woman. Now she was a shell of a being, empty and shattered. Her chest had been crushed on that day and she never looked back, letting dark deeds corrupt her very core.

Krystal emerged from a sewer cover, half frozen and filthy. It was warm enough here to survive and her body was giving out on her, dizzy from the lack of oxygen in those pipes. As she pushed the manhole cover from the street, she noted a pair of feet directly before her. Her arms were giving out, even as she pulled her body from the drain. Her chest was heaving and the pain of exhaustion was overwhelming her. However, that pain held no candle to the shattering sensation of having her heart ripped from her chest and handed back to her a mere two and a half decades ago.

"My word," Said someone standing near by, on a street corner. "You were out in that awful blizzard alone?" The man asked. She could sense that he was a lion and a man of the cloth, at that. Immediately she wanted to kill him if only to defile his holy shrine as a personal attack against the Goddess. The 'Creator' and Her 'followers' often spoke of love, a subject Krystal saw as lewd and untrue. Her body, however, was unable to comply much longer and she fled into the darkness of unconsciousness, immediately comforted by the dank solitude. Finally she gave up if only for a short while, letting herself relax.

Her emerald eyes fluttered in an attempt to stay open. Those delicate lashes collided together until her eyelids were completely shut. Krystal collapsed on the street in silence, her soft, silky tail dropped to the ground, flopping arbitrarily across her left thigh. Her body shut down completely between pain, the cold from outside and the lack of oxygen, climbing in through the exhaust ports.

Not knowing what else to do, the Minister of Faith knelt to draw her body up. His strong frame easily allowed him to lift the lithe vixen and carry her back to his Church. There, he would give her a cot and wash her face and feet, which was customary to do for all weary travelers according to his scriptures.

For now, Krystal slept under the Almighty eyes of the Goddess, Creator of Lylat and, as far as they believed, everything…

* * *

**Star gasped** **in pain**, sitting up with his eyes wide. Fara glanced over her shoulder, sitting on a sofa in the only remaining suite left on the transporter. She tilted her head, squinting a bit through the ambient amber lighting, allowing for that glimmering golden gaze to glide over his masculine visage, curious to his outcry. "Are you all right? Bad dream? Crimson told me you get them from time to time," She said in a soft, soothing tone. In normal lighting, the fennec's eyes would resemble something deeper than jade but here, the coloration of the lighting affected the coloration of those tender hues.

"This was intense," McCloud panted softly, shifting his weight and placing his feet on the floor, shivering slightly. He cupped his face within his paws, elbows resting on his knees. The vulpine pilot's hair partially obscured his face, his fingers did the rest. "I had a nightmare unlike any other I've ever experienced. It was about a woman in immense pain; I couldn't see her face, there was far too much darkness clouding her body. All I know is that she was gripped with the deepest inner anguish and she was fueling it with a passionate, consuming hatred; an inner loathing I've never felt before…

"Strangely, I could sense," Star trailed off then cleared his throat. He glanced up, through his fingers and saw that he had Fara's complete attention. "She parted ways with her allies and decided to coexist with their enemies to get revenge. Then she disappeared and took her own direction in life which led her further down a path of hurt and spite. I could feel her anguish consuming me so tightly that I couldn't breath."

"By the Goddess," Fara said, blinking at him. "You have tormenting dreams like this _every_ night?"

"I've never seen something _that_ vile before," Star muttered, still covering his face with his paws. He didn't really care for Fara to see the tears streaming down his face which matted his fur down. He could, however, sense that she already _assumed_ he was weeping softly.

Star took a slow breath to calm his nerves then continued. "It was horrendous. I could feel her pain and misery and it was so real that it was physically excruciating. The agony of her hurt and the deeply bottled pain in her heart was enough to crush the breath from my chest. I dreamt that I couldn't breathe; I was asphyxiated from the potency of feelings she easily bottled up… and when the pain was to the point where I couldn't stand it anymore, I woke up."

"That explains the gasp when you sat up," Fara replied softly. She gently eased her arms around him, hugging the fox tenderly. "I'm sorry you go through this torment, Sweetie. Is there anything you can contemplate on that sooths your mind?"

Star dipped his head away from Fara so that she couldn't see his face. He then inverted his paws, palms out, to wipe at his face. "I wish I had answers; I've got to understand the meaning behind that nightmare. I've never felt anything like that. It's like I was going through the same hurt with that woman. That's one of the hard parts of telepathy… you sense the pain and misery of others and it's difficult to shut out those sensations. If you're attracted to happiness, you surround yourself with people like that. If you're attracted by despair, you may just find yourself surrounded by the damned or worse… causing despair for those around you."

"I see…" Fara frowned then said, "Do you want me to escort you to the medical bay? It's another two hours to Corneria and they might have something that will relax you."

"It's not an anxiety attack," McCloud replied softly. "It's a traumatic moment and I just lived through it in my mind and chest, but it's over and I'll be fine, I promise. Now that it's over, I'm left with the physical ache from having a taste of such pain. I can't even describe it beyond that and… I know this all sounds silly and stupid."

The fennec lifted her left paw, placing her soft, velvety fingertip against his lips. "Shh, sweetheart, it doesn't sound silly or stupid. You're obviously bothered by something beyond comprehension. Why don't you take a warm bath before we arrive? That works pretty well for me."

McCloud spoke against the tip of her finger. "No, I'm fine. That might seem a tad inappropriate," Star said, shaking his head slowly. "I'll take a bath in my personal time; I'll be fine, Fara." The fennec lowered her paw, looking him over. The conviction in his voice caused her to frown just slightly and she wondered if he trusted her or, more importantly, if he trusted himself around her.

"Suit yourself," She replied with a slow nod. "Anything else you wanna tell me?"

"I don't know how," Star began, slowly drawing his words out as if unsure of himself. "But I will say this… Whatever that evil sensation was that put me into such a tail spin, the panacea lies on the surface of Fichina. I don't know how or why but I can feel it in my gut. We should try and wrap up our business on Corneria quickly. If five people died and four are missing on that planet, or whatever the numbers were, then that's where we need to be."

"I like your sense of responsibility," Fara told him, patting his knee gently. "And you're absolutely sure that your nightmare was only a dream and not a vision?"

"I'm not _absolutely sure_ of anything right now," Star muttered in soft, dulcet tones. "_Except_ for the fact that Fichina will tie into that nightmare, somehow. Maybe I _did_ have some sort of vision about our future mission. All I know is that the pain I just experienced is emanating from that planet like… some sort of… I can't even _describe_ it, Fara. All I know is that someone with a _will to live_ is dying inside, somewhere on Fichina."

* * *

**Krystal slept for another three and a half hours** before her body was physically well enough to release her from the depths of unconsciousness. Her mind had fled there and she couldn't be sure how or why it happened. Did the man of the cloth have some sort of power over her? She couldn't be sure; she'd never encountered that sort of problem in the past.

Sitting up in the cot, she glanced around the sanctuary with a frown. Her face had been washed and her footwear was missing. Upon closer examination, she noted that her feet were clean and her boots were sitting on the floor nearby. She extended her mind outwards, probing the immediate area for life then frowned when she sensed that the minister of faith was still nearby.

She quickly went for her boots and began to fasten them, hoping to leave before his return. She was in a near state of panic, trying to rush as she sensed he was coming closer. Haste was wasteful and the laces became nearly impossible. He returned to the room and simply stated, "Ah! You've recovered your senses. I'm Brother Gooding of the Order of The Way."

"I'm leaving," She replied in a simple, nearly monotone voice.

The man's smile disappeared. "I implore you to rest, ma'am. You nearly froze to death outside of the dome," he protested.

"There is nothing for me, here. Therefore I must take my leave," She explained, finishing the laces of her second boot. She stood up and checked herself. The tan coverings over her chest and the matching pants were form-fittingly tight to her body while the fur-matching blue layer covered her stomach and arms. It was an attractive piece if not simply dark for her taste.

"There is education here," Said Brother Gooding. "You can learn about how the Creator loves you and that you're accepted and appreciated as a person."

"There is _no_ such thing as 'love', now back off." Krystal turned for the exit and began to storm across the chapel, heading for the door. Brother Gooding quickly followed her, reaching his paw out in polite protest of her apathy.

"I insist! Give it a chance, my child!" He cried.

Krystal suddenly turned about, snatching his throat in her right paw. She forced him down into the nearest pew, drawing her un-painted claws up against the flesh of his neck. "I said to give it a rest, fool. I even gave you a chance because you're pure of heart like I once was, but you didn't let it go! You people always think you can change who I am now! I allow myself to be who I am because in this solitude I feel solace!"

"Please," Cried Gooding, "I'm only trying to help you! You collapsed in the streets, nearly frost bitten!"

Krystal, once the tiny vixen with a large heart, shouted, "And then you tell me that I am _loved_ and _accepted_ and _appreciated as a person_. You cannot truly fathom who you've just come across!"

"Please," The man chuckled nervously, "You're growing upset, perhaps you'd be better off if you rested a bit longer."

"Behold!" Krystal snapped, using her free paw to grasp the man's headfur. She tightened that paw into a fist then pulled firmly, forcing him to gaze down. The lion's muzzle began to part, his lower lip quivering in horror at the sight laid out before him.

Krystal used her telepathy to force images into his mind that were so twisted and horrible that Brother Gooding became filled with terror. Indescribable gore was laid out before him. To his eyes, he saw himself completely gutted. The visions were forced into his mind through her powerful reversal of thought transference.

Barely finding his voice with which to whisper, the Minister of Faith was already beginning to hyperventilate. "You've desecrated this church by spilling my blood within these Holy Walls…" He sobbed, being force-fed a fraction of her bottled pain which was translated in his brain to a physical ache in his stomach, leading him to believe that what he saw was real. She could sense his confusion, wondering why she would have cut him in such a way but she couldn't help but smile, feeding off of his fear and despair. "I don't want to die," he begged.

"You already have!" She roared, tightening her paw around his throat. It reminded her of that time… She no longer saw Brother Gooding beneath her, but Fox McCloud, who struggled against her grasp, wheezing for breath. "Make what little time you have left and pray to your Goddess," Krystal hissed, letting her rage boil forth.

"This is a house of purity, please, I beg of you!" Gooding pleaded. "I beseech thee, child of pain; let the Creator heal your heart! Don't give in to these murderous acts! They will blacken your soul and rob you of your humanity!"

"Your tacky supplication sounds like it was worded out of a third-rate horror movie," Krystal muttered. "You're the good natured priest who dies to save everyone else; the cowardly lion who begs for his life until the end so that no one else has to die. Grow some goddess-damned balls and die with integrity, you whiny bitch." Her eyes were glowing with an eerie scarlet incandescence. Sunswept hues of bloody crimson danced with mirth so that, in his mind, he was unable to see her pupils.

Krystal stepped forward, cocking her arm back. Her shoulder blade shifted and she opened her stance for balance. Suddenly she threw her weight into a pivot, hurling him up against the nearby wall. The lion, much larger than her own form, slumped to the floor, grasping at his neck from his hands and knees.

"A kneeling position is far more fitting to a coward like you," She said.

"I am a man of faith, not a warrior," he protested with large amber eyes, gazing up at her, trembling in fear. Never before had he seen his own intestines and he was afraid to gaze back down at them once more, even though the vision was now rescinded. "Please, Almighty Goddess, grant this woman the power to overcome the torment and suffering that has gripped her heart; free this woman and show her the kindness and love of Your infinite salvation!" His words caused Krystal to smirk, balling her paws into dainty blue fists.

"I guess you'll have to bless this house once more, when I leave," She replied firmly. "Are you going to let me leave peacefully this time? Or do I have to impale you like I did with two of my victims back in the other dome to the east?"

She suddenly thrust her paw outwards again, offering an intimidating battle cry. Forcing her telepathic powers outwards again, she caused his mind to see a short sword in her paw and the blade was now against his throat, rusty in coloration from dried blood. His eyes widened once more and he backed up against the wall, looking upon the invisible sight with an expression of horror.

Krystal was consumed in fury; she drew the sword back, feeding the vision directly into his mind with such clarity and detail that he even saw a glimmer of light reflect off of its scarlet-dipped blade. "Goodbye, Brother Gooding. Tell your Goddess she has something I want. His name is Fox McCloud; I sent him to her twenty-five years ago and I crave that it is _his_ throat in my paws every time I take a life! You can not understand the hurt and pain he has caused; perhaps you'll learn a fraction of that sensation by way of your death!"

"No!" He cried, cringing back against the wall. Krystal swung her arm outwards and the minister fainted just as her paw smacked across his face, slashing her nails into his cheek. There was no sword; it was all part of the mind r-pe ( # TOSable word), extending her inner anguish on to others around her to better cope with her own pain. His facial fur became saturated with blood, matting the fur down and the lion slumped to the ground in silence.

"You pansy," She grumbled. "I hope that you cry like a little girl when you wake up," the vixen muttered softly. "But know this: it wasn't your Goddess or her '_love_' that saved you. My rule of thumb is to always let a witness survive. It adds to my reputation. You're my witness in this dome. More than a paw-full of others weren't quite so lucky back east." She turned and stalked away from the feline, heading out through the main doors with a devious smirk painted over her svelte blue maw.

Almost immediately, some random wolf approached her outside, licking his lips. "Hey cutie; did you just give confession for something you did wrong, baby? Want a good reason to go back in there?"

Krystal narrowed her eyes at the man. "They used to call me the Praying Mantis… Do you want to know why?" She asked, her smirk returning almost immediately.

"Because you hunt down men like pray?" The man was attempting to flirt and she couldn't even conceive how he would have considered that appealing. What an odd creature he was to her.

"Do you want to know what women really want?" She asked the lupine, leaning up close so that she could take in his scent. It was nothing like Fox McCloud, leaving a bitter taste at the back of her throat and a shutter of distaste ran down her spine.

The wolf offered a sly grin and the wrong answer. "A man that will keep you safe, remove you from danger and do _any_thing to protect you, right?"

"Funny," Krystal mused, stepping back to look him over. "The _first_ man in my life once said the same thing; I guess all men really _are_ a like in one way or another. It was a pity for him …and pity for _you_." She snatched his throat in her paw and said, "A woman wants a man who won't lie when he says he loves her, but won't push her away when she's in danger. What a woman _really_ wants is a man who would _die_ for her. Would you be willing to _die_ just to be my mate?"

The wolf was fairly surprised when she became aggressive but he was rather amused by her forwardness. The lupine's eyes lowered, looking over her curvaceous form then he said, "I'd die for you, baby. I'm dying to get you back at my place, as it is."

"You don't know _anything_ about a praying mantis, do you?" She asked, leering at him with a sadistic grin.

The man cocked his brow, sort of gawking at her. "Baby, no offence to your favorite bug but if you haven't noticed, this planet is too cold for insects."

"Then let me educate you," Krystal replied. "In order to copulate with the male…" She paused for effect.

"Damn, I'm loving this lesson already," He chuckled, his throat still host to her paw.

"Loving? What would you know about love?" She quickly said. She shook away the sensation of hurt and betrayal then told him, "In order to copulate with the male, the female Mantis removes the head of her mate," She said, baring her teeth.

"Like, removing it from my pants?" Said the moron, obviously only thinking of one thing right now. "Here let me help you," he said, reaching a paw to his belt buckle.

"No, sweetheart," Krystal said. "Like this," She added, suddenly twisting at his throat. She shifted her body so hard that it snapped his neck, killing him. His eyes became glassy, rolling upwards as if floating slowly in water. His body became limp and she simply guided him towards the nearest alley, dropping him to the cement adjacent to a dumpster. "I'd remove your head the rest of the way but I'm in a hurry to find out where I am, what the hell is going on and if Corneria thinks I'm dead. Sorry, lover boy. I'm glad you'd die for me; that was very sweet of you …unlike some certain _other_ heartbreaking vulpine."

She turned away, those fluffy sapphire locks of her hair swirling about, laying haphazardly over her forehead. The little blue vixen made her way back out into the central section of town, heading for a public transportation depot. Sure enough, when she came across the first subway entrance a block away, she was shocked to have the planet's identity confirmed. The thing is, this didn't feel like home. No one knew who she was and the voices in her mind weren't struggling in the absolute despair she'd created throughout Lylat.

She opted for the Subway, looking to take a tramcar out to the next dome. According to a map on the wall, there was an airport at the Capital City and it wasn't very far. The only problem was, she didn't have any money. Deciding to find herself some spare coin, she crossed the quiet subway station and stood near a phone booth, scouting potential victims.

Before she could strike, another foolish man approached her. This one was a fox, much like McCloud with a white tuft of headfur and a strong jaw line. He was awfully sure of himself; the scoundrel approached her, placing his paw against the wall behind her, directly above her left shoulder, leaning in close. The vulpine's musk was inviting but she was against the game he was playing.

Almost immediately, she could sense that his only intention was to tie with a vixen and go along his merry way. That wasn't going to happen. "Hello, gorgeous. You're pretty fine for an older woman."

"I'm twenty-one years your senior," Krystal replied, sensing that the boy was only in his early 20's. "Why I do believe you're the most offensive, vile minded gentleman I've ever met. With thoughts like that, you should be ashamed of yourself."

The man grinned. "Reading me like an open book are you? I _love_ a woman that can look into my eyes and know exactly what I want."

"What would _you_ know about loving a woman?" Krystal snapped. She then paused and probed his mind. The little arse was loaded with money and she immediately knew what she had to do to get it. "This isn't a very private place and I can be a _very_ private woman."

"There is plenty of privacy in a place like this," he corrected. A furtive glance over his shoulder was given then the vulpine said, "This is the quietest tram line on Fichina. You could get on a car in this city and take it to the next four domes and not see a single person the whole ride until after rush hour, which is… at least another 4 hours from now."

"Oh? Is that so?" Krystal offered the most innocent smile she could muster, attempting not to furrow her brows or narrow her gaze at him.

"Where you going, baby?" The fox asked, reaching into his pocket. "By the way, I love the dyed fur job. Blue is hot, sweetheart."

"Yeah," Krystal said, looking away for a moment. How could this one look even remotely close to McCloud? He was an absolute sleezeball. "Tell you what… if you buy me a ticket, I'll let you give me a ride… all the way to the Capital."

"Now giving you a ride sounds like fun," The 'gentleman' replied, hooking a thumb back at the ticket counter. "You're in luck, little 'privacy' girl. The 12:10 is the dullest, most lifeless hour to ride the tram. This is the last stop out of the city and it's a solid half an hour before you even get to the Capital dome. There's a lot of snow between domes, I'll keep you warm. Sound good?"

"I think we can make some sort of arrangement," Krystal replied, motioning with her paw towards the ticket booth. "Lead on, I'll follow. Once we're on the train, I'll probably want to slide my hand under your shirt and … well, you'll see." A toothy, Cheshire grin was given, exciting the smarmy man in the most uncomfortable way. "I can't wait to show you how a man like you makes a woman like me feel."

* * *

**Star McCloud quickly sat up again**, blinking repeatedly. "I don't know if I'm somehow tied to this force on Fichina or if I'm somehow zeroing in on our future target, but this is growing rather painful," He said, shaking his head slowly. Fara frowned thoughtfully, watching the young man struggling.

She had to know what was going on to some extent or the curiosity would have done her in. "What exactly do you feel that makes you physically cringe like that?"

Star lowered his head again, reaching a paw to his chest, cupping his palm over the left side of his torso. "I can feel my ribs aching so badly. I feel the eerie sensation of feather-soft fingertips wrapping around my heart muscle and it's beginning to pull, drawing my heart completely out of my chest. Earlier I felt my throat crush and a shiver ran down my spine; all of a sudden, I felt like I could swear that my neck was truly broken. Now I know what a male Praying Mantis feels like; glad I'm a fox."

"Yeah I read about them somewhere," Fara mused with a frown, listening in detail to the pain he was going through. "It's got to be some way we can hurry through the process of getting everything taken care of. We should be docking in Corneria's Downtown station within the next 10 minutes."

"This pain feels muffled, in a way," He mused after wincing, immediately returning to the previous topic. Sensing that she didn't quite follow, Star decided to explain. "It's like this," He said with a sigh. "If you pick up a snowball, it's cold. If you pick up a snowball in a cotton mitten, it's cold but it's not bad enough to sting at your palm after holding it for ten straight minutes. You can tolerate it better. It's muffled like that."

"Eerie," Phoenix replied softly. "Maybe we should take you to a hospital?" She asked politely. Her inquiry was met with a slow shake of his head. He wasn't interested, she could tell by his body language, regarding the idea with a negative demeanor.

The young fox turned his gaze to the nearby window and simply gazed out into the open space, facing away from Corneria's large heavily body. "Let's just get our business done on Corneria and head to Fichina as soon as possible. In fact, I'm curious to see if Violet has photographed the L. Z. yet. I want to know if this 'fluctuation' has anything to do with my pains; it started around the same time as the abnormality, more or less. It's just worse now than before… like how when the mitten is soaked all the way through so the snowball gets its harsh bite back."

"Understood," Fara said with a sharp frown. He was looking rough; it was in his eyes and for the short time she's known him so far, he seemed to take pain pretty well. This was abnormal and she knew it right away. She could only hope that whatever awaited them on Fichina wasn't out of the team's league.

* * *

A/N: _Most of you already know a lot about the new StarFox Command for the DS. Most of you have seen NightShade64's photograph gallery of about 9 multiple endings with even more possible. A great deal of you know that one or two of those endings depicts Krystal joining StarWolf and becoming EVIL. Rad but creepy. It's time to find closure for EVIL KRYSTAL before the murderous damsel can even get started. Honestly, I'm really just looking for colossal ways for Star to get some bottled emotional trauma. He'll need it later on… after all, I did promise drama and thriller stuff. I'm getting there, relax! _

_Anyhow, the same way Fox, Krystal and the entire team vanishes at the very beginning of this story… a universe that is home to the Evil Krystal uses the same technique to banish her from their lives. Now it becomes StarFox's problem and things really hit the fan from here on out. :D _


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter -13-

**The barren fields of Fichina** were rather beautiful to behold. As the tramline zipped through the deserted rolling hills between residential domes, Krystal found herself glued to the window. It was a temporary metaphorical release, a wholesome shroud that blanketed her sins and her pain with the purity of its existence. The divergence between the world inside of that tram and the world outside was a stark contrast.

A grim mosaic splattered sanguine vitae painted the wall behind her seat. The cool atmosphere within the train was causing the blood to congeal, leaving sticky residue. The coagulated remnants of syrupy scarlet rested in a gooey puddle on the floor, filling in the grooves of a rubberized corrugated maintenance panel. The gelatinous garnet reached halfway up the wall and a few sticky droplets even made it so high as the ceiling from the initial spray of her victim's death.

Outside, the pure blanket of unblemished powder reached into the distance in variance to the grisly depiction of murder, inside of that tramcar. The snow covered every inch of landscape; every tree, every_thing_. It was almost rejuvenating just to gaze upon it.

Her heart ached from the pain of ancient memories but for a moment in her life, the hurt was allegorically blanketed in silence and restored, if only for a short time. The symbolic snow resembled a fresh page with the possibility of hope or renewal but deep down, Krystal knew better. If anything, she better resembled the extreme end in this scale of beauty; a veritable Ice Queen.

Olive orbs lowered slightly. It was difficult for her sea-green gaze to remain on a vision of such natural splendor. The absolute opulence was overpowering in its intensity and before long, the image of Fichina caused her to push away from the window. The _coldest_ reality was not outside of that tramline… It was inside with her, sprawled out on the floor. Krystal of the Cardinal Sun placed her paws into her lap.

Beneath the vinyl body suit, her markings were still present, fresh white contrasting against cobalt fur. Her eyes fluttered shut, remembering it as the first pain in her life. She was a small girl, clinching her paws around her father's wrist, looking up at him with soft, sad eyes. He returned a sympathetic gaze, watching his daughter in silence. The little girl's muzzle parted but no scream was heard.

There was a sizzling sound that caused her ears to perk and the memory of her branding rushed back, flooding her senses with the bite of a fiery metallic symbol being pressed to her left and right thigh. The simultaneous hiss from either side was louder than she could shout and her lungs burned from the sensation of breathlessness. Her father stood tall, stoic in disposition.

Perhaps she'd never thought of it this way before, but it was the first betrayal. No man helped her; she helped herself. When Fox felt she was in danger, he pushed her away instead of standing by her; he never portrayed strength in that sense, at least not to her. The only time Fox was strong was when he first rescued her from plunging to her death at the top of the Krazoa Palace. As she recalled, he went for his ship and wasted no time in fighting Andross.

When he severed his relationship from her, a few years later, she felt as though he treated her like a ward. She was a bane to his life and so he swept her under a metaphorical carpet and called it a 'blanket of protection'. He didn't rush into danger while she looked on; no, he avoided the danger and took her by the paw, leading her to a cave, where he shut her out forever and said that it was for her health and wellbeing. She despised being whisked away to a distant part of his life. She looked back on it with rage, watching him prance back into the action, alone. His flouncing strut assured her that he worked better without her at his side and the rejection still stung, twenty-five years later.

The man walked out of her life without even struggling over the decision; to him the decision made itself. She could never understand why he would extricate himself of her presence. She watched him go, devoid of emotion, almost. It hurt him to see her cry and she now hated herself for not being strong enough to spit in his face. Fox's ability to disengage his relationship without a burning guilt always puzzled her. He wanted her to be safe but it was a pitiful reason to have ended their unity.

Her callous, defiant stare glazed over once more until she was glowering at the translucent reflection her body cast against the nearby window. It felt like gazing into a mirror and only seeing a ghost of her own image. Part of her was glad she couldn't see an inclusive reflection of herself; she didn't like what she saw. For within that superficial facsimile of Krystal, she still saw something that disgusted her… a remnant of Fox McCloud's past was in that paltry reflection. She hated Fox McCloud for the broken trust and for making a fool of her naïve heart. …The cloudy anger returned to her chest, boiling within her bosom and the snow was forgotten.

For her to be strong, she needed pride in her history and self confidence in her choices. The path laid out before her was a corrupted gloom of self sacrifice. She gave up a piece of her humanity with every precious life she took and every inner whim she fulfilled. The burning rage seemed to dance in her eyes, now. She was mentally preparing herself for the rest of the evening. Justice would be served in a poetic performance tonight, if she could manage to live through it…

The problem was she _always_ lived through it. She survived the torment every day and trudged through the anguish of her pain as if wading through a physical representation of that agonizing distress. Her body was immune to it, two and a half decades later. Her heart was empty of love and purity, replaced by a dark conviction. Her humanity had been transplanted with the desire to hurt so that she could shed her misery and entangle others in the same despair. The once beautiful scenery now resembled a bland mire, meaningless and morass.

As the train began to lower, heading back into the frozen, dead soil, the snow grew higher until it towered over the windows. She was minutes from the city and knew that she couldn't risk detection, here. The crafty blue devil approached the carcass of her victim, leering at her work with a grin. She then knelt down and removed the maintenance panel, watching the snowy half-covered track zip by beneath. Cold air rushed in through the entrance in the floor but it gradually escalated in temperature as the train grew closer to the Capital Dome, traveling deeper beneath the ground. Once the sanctity of a tunnel encased the tramline, she made her move.

Taking the panel in her paws, she slipped down into the gap, feet first. Placing the heels of her feet against a half-frozen metal rail under the train, she lowered herself into the exit. Once she felt she was stable, the vixen pulled the bloody panel back into place, now underneath the train car. The train began to decelerate, approaching a turn that would take it to some damnable destination beneath the Capital Dome.

Krystal had no false pretences concerning her situation; she knew what must be done. The sapphire siren allowed her feet to touch the ground, dragging through the dirt and rubble, leaving a light cloud of dust in her wake. She waited until the track straightened out but before the train could speed back up, then she released the bar underneath the tramcar. Momentum carried her forward along the bumpy track, but Krystal was well prepared for her next course of action.

As soon as her paws left the frozen metal bar beneath the train, she reached for the shortened staff in her pack. Drawing it quickly from its sheath, she immediately activated the azure force field which wrapped around her in its protective globe of light. She tumbled for another moment, carried by inertia. The train continued down the line and the daring vixen unceremoniously collapsed to a halt.

"I have unfairly escaped death once again," She muttered, sitting up in the subterranean tunnel. The gloom stretched in every direction, leaving her to feel safe and pleased, enshrouded in the bleak atmosphere. Finally, Krystal managed to draw her body up to her feet. She began walking, using the glow of her staff to light her way. Its dim luminosity didn't fill the entire shaft with incandescence but where it left off, her vulpine vision took over.

Before long, she emerged from the subway grid, taking a ladder into the sewers. From there, Krystal located another ladder and made her way up, wedging the metal cover from the street, using her staff. Artificial light poured in from the dome interior above her; additional illumination was cast into the alleyway by a streetlight at the corner. Her eyes darted away from the radiance, scowling in disdain. Pulling herself up into the alley, Krystal was quick to seal the manhole cover, slinking deeper into the alley's recesses. The manmade alcove surrounded her like a sanctuary, where she stalked through the asylum of obscurity.

Abject navy bangs were splayed every which way over her face, partially shrouding her feminine visage. The eclipsing tendrils cloaked her oblique orbs in a shroud of lengthy headfur. Its comforting veil kept her from brushing back those strands from her eyes, which only served to further her fiendish façade.

The vixen's venerable veneer was no more. Her cerulean countenance was marred by a demonic disposition; corruption and that inner iniquity had even tainted her once delicate features. It was a contagious sort of spitefulness; like a disease in her heart that proliferated in her soul, burgeoning throughout her body in waves until release became necessary. It gave her that ability to outwardly project mental thought transference with her telepathic frontal lobe. She was able to couple her hatred and her mental mastery, striking at others with her foul malady of grief and sorrow. But at the same time, her anguish gave her strength.

She concentrated her woeful misery, torturing herself with every step deeper into the alley. She was attempting to summon all of her inner turmoil until her body hummed with anger and resentment. She allowed herself to transcend from a simple antagonistic mood to being completely exasperated over her unfair life. Once she was completely overcome with that inner ire, Krystal became one with her unbridled frenzy. Her original goals concerning Corneria were put to the side for now… a planet covered in a blanket of metaphorical purity stood for everything she now despised.

In the first dome, she sensed that some older folks still had a strange fear of a paranormal incident a few years ago involving some young girl and so Krystal projected that image into the minds of several terrified survivors. However, she was no longer in the mood for fun. She now reverted to a mood of antipathy and was filled with the overwhelming vitriol and desire to spread the misery she felt in her gut.

Her inhibitions were gone and any trace of her evasive reticence, last displaced in that Church back east, dissolved in an instant. There would be _no mercy_ shown for any planet enveloped by something so pure. It suddenly became obvious, knowing just what she would need to combat a planet blanketed with dazzling pearl…

* * *

**"Acting General William Gray is on the line**," said a lady in the adjacent office. Star McCloud sat in a simple chair, facing the elegant mahogany desk of a credible lawyer. On the side walls, McCloud noted that there were many bookshelves, each home to fancy, expensive trinkets from past clientele. It was an impressive spectacle in its own right, all the way down to the lawyer's suit. 

"I'll take it in here," Said the legal representative, looking smug in his large, extravagant chair. A slim-faced setter sat across from Star McCloud, adjusting his tie, reaching for the telephone communicator. The swanky seating matched the elegant environment from the decorative design to the ornamental objects which brought the room to life in a sense. The Lawyer took a moment to speak on the phone then blinked rapidly, as if uncomprehending whatever he was just told. After a brief pause, he offered the phone across the desk so that Star had little choice but to accept it.

"McCloud here," replied the fox into the receiver.

"This is Bill," said the General. "There has been a major setback; The Capital of Fichina is practically decimated. An attacker has cut a swathe through the center, slaughtering hundreds and burning the rest with a devastating fire that seems to have sprung up throughout the entire city, simultaneously. We think it may have originated in the sewers. It's spreading fast and can't be contained. Intelligence sources claim that it's coming from the same bastard responsible for multiple deaths in two other residential domes. I don't have anyone else I can utilize to investigate this because my resources are tied up in the explosive incident that occurred here at Military Headquarters, day before yesterday; how far along are you in your business?"

"Well," Star glanced over at the Lawyer then shrugged, even though the gesture couldn't be seen over the line. "Fara acquired illegally modified fighters the other day, title for title. We could leave right now if we had to but they're not designed to combat invaders; that's why Fara is at Space Dynamics, even as we speak. The sooner _she_ is finished, the sooner we can leave. I'm just here with this Lawyer, getting our gear registered and turning in paperwork to set up our team as its own business. How did you know which Lawyer I was at anyhow?."

Gray was still using his business tone, staying completely professional. "There are only so many in this part of the city who specialize in what you want to do… It only took a few minutes to track you down. You'll have to finish up the legalities of your business at a later time," Bill said. "Take a taxi to Space Dynamics and be ready to pick up your gear. I'm going to contact Fara and help speed things along for her and S.D.; I want you guys to have procured and secured your equipment within the next few hours so you can head to Fichina."

"If it helps," Star began, glancing back at the Lawyer for a moment. "Violet is heading to Fichina for Recon. I'm not sure if she's dropping off Tricky before or after her flyby but she _should_ already be in the general area if you need intelligence."

"I'll contact her as well," General Gray replied. "Tell your Lawyer you want to file a 70-SR Tile form for a Mercenary Squadron with class B arms and apply for the re-registration of a Dreadnaught class vessel. He'll get everything ready for you to sign when you return to him, after we figure out what's happening on Fichina. Your mission objective is to ascertain the threat, see if it can be neutralized and if it's a military situation. Contact me if you have any problems putting a stop to these trouble makers. Gray, Out!"

Star handed the telephone communicator back to the Lawyer and frowned. "I'm going to have to have you file some applications for me in my absence. The acting General of the Fleet is dispatching my mercenary unit to Fichina. Now you see why I'm in a hurry, we're already active and I need to get everything finished ASAP. We'll need the standard 70-SR Tile form for a Mercenary Squad with permission to wield Class B arms. I also need to re-register a Dreadnaught called The GreatFox II. I'll be back to fill out the paperwork when I return from Fichina."

"Very well; I'm rather impressed," said the Lawyer. "The last Mercenary team to have direct backing from a General was StarFox, years ago. I'll have to visit your ship with a certified inspector as soon as possible."

"I'm the son of Fox McCloud," Star replied, standing up quickly. "Let's set up an appointment for a few days from now. I'll contact you if this mission on Fichina lasts longer than I anticipate. Can you arrange a taxi for me?"

"You're related to Fox McCloud?" The Lawyer asked, his eyes widening. "I'd only be too happy to help you, especially if the General needs your help. I'm Jeremy Allen the Third and I'll personally take you over to Space Dynamics in my car."

Star blinked for a moment. He could sense that the Lawyer was trying to schmooze because involving himself with StarFox meant having a famous name added to his portfolio for bragging rights. However, the Lawyer was going out of his way to offer the fox a ride and, due to the time constraints, Star decided to take him up on his offer. The tall, slender-faced setter stood up from behind his desk and smiled. "Right this way," He told McCloud.

* * *

"**We don't sell advanced war planes like the Arwing Fighter to civilians**," The beagle replied, shaking his head slowly but never removing his eyes from the shapely fennec. "It's corporate and military policy. I can't sell to you until you're a certified Military or Mercenary outfit. Having the proper legal documentation is crucial." 

Fara lifted her right paw, touching the headset transponder. She used a manicured fingertip, which now matched the rest of her fingers with a shorter length of nail. Pressing in on the button, she said, "Phoenix here. Ahh, yes General. No, sweetheart, they don't sell to civilians and Star isn't finished filing so StarFox isn't yet an active Mercenary entity… Fichina may be under attack?" She simply balked; the surprise was evident in her voice.

"I've been in negotiations for an hour and I'm not any further than before I began," She explained, pausing to listen to the person on the other end. She then added, "Aggressive Negotiations are a reality but I would have to clear it with the board, the share holders, you name it." Another short pause before she suddenly grinned. The expression faded and then she said, "It would be such a profitable endeavor that no one would complain. Having the largest transportation conglomerate and the largest Cornerian weapons and war craft business making vehicles for both civilian and armed forces would be … yes sir, I need paperwork; the only other way is if I was the CEO."

The fennec Vixen sighed over the communicator for a moment. There was a short span of silence then she said, "Without processing the paper that Star is applying for, we can't," Fara paused again. "…That's a lot of dead Fichinans. No, sir. I'll handle it. We'll have Space Dynamic top model Arwings with all the frill in under three hours. Yes, call Violet about the recon intelligence and I'll contact Crimson O'Donnell so he can help us move these birds. I'll have him bring in one of the Title-For-Title fighters I acquired the other day; we can use it towards a tank… Come to think of it, I'll have him bring both fighters, using a tractor beam; we may need more than one tank."

Fara suddenly grinned with a near giggle. "Bill, I can handle Space Dynamics. They're a big company but so is Lunarstone and I _do_ believe that the investing firm who bought Lunar Stone Hotels is _owned_ by Phoenix Transportation. All right, understood… Fara out." She then turned to the beagle and said, "I understand that you won't sell us a half-dozen Arwings and two tanks. If you'll pardon me, I need to make a very quick communication call, then I'll want you to personally take me down to your best Arwing fighters, where I can pick them up."

"Miss, maybe you do not understand what it is that I'm telling you," said the gentleman. The beagle leaned back in his plush seating and said, "In order to bypass these laws, you have to _own_ the company. No one is in the position to 'negotiate' with me on this."

"Stay put," Fara replied in an ordering tone. She then punched in a communication patch, routing the call to her headset. "Yes, Charles, this is Fara Phoenix and I'm using my 57 percent-vote to make a very sudden decision for the company. Don't worry, it's quite lucrative… I wish to purchase Space Dynamics and begin a corporate merge. Tell the board to get things taken care of; run it by the share holders and promote a beagle named Erick Jefferson to head of the sales and leasing department. Buy out the current supervisor and transfer 'em to the head of a new department in charge of the new up-coming civilian line of vessels." She listened to the gentleman on the other end of the line for a moment then said, "Their stocks will probably triple by tomorrow, I've got to go but I'll call you back. Put everything into motion, Charles. Thank you, sweetheart… I can see why my father loved you being on his board. Goodbye."

She disconnected the channel then returned her attention to Erick Jefferson, the now-stupefied looking beagle. "Now, I'm your new supervisor," Fara told him, folding her paws on his desk, looking the man straight in the eye. "Your desk is far too small and this office is unacceptable. When we conclude our business transaction, your next goal will be to take an office upstairs and get yourself something to make your office more… attractive. I expect a half-dozen Arwing Fighters prepped, fueled and ready for combat in a few short hours. My name is Fara Marie Phoenix; I'm your new boss, sweetheart. But I'll tell you what, _Erick_. You can just call me "Ma'am." You're quite welcome for the promotion; now get me my planes, Mister Jefferson. I'm on a time schedule here and this needs to be brief."

"I… is this a television joke?" He didn't know what else to say.

"Let me be concise," Fara said with an enigmatic smile. Her pithy tone equally complimented her succinct demeanor. "Any moment, you'll receive some sort of notification that I am your new supervisor. This isn't a joke, sweetie. There aren't any cameras."

Suddenly a fax machine behind the beagle began to hum. After taking a few seconds to gape at her, the gentleman turned towards the machine and took a memo from the print tray. His eyes widened, seeing a letter announcing to all employees that they'll soon be eligible for a buy-out package from the new owning company, Phoenix Transportation Co. It also stated that there would be more information over the next day or two and for everyone to remain calm, that no one will be losing their job and that Phoenix Transportation will honor the payment contracts of all current employees with a 15 percent company-wide uniform increase of pay.

The beagle lifted his eyes from the print out, gawking at Fara in disbelief. "You bought our company because I wouldn't sell you military fighters?"

"Everything on my Mercenary team is legit," Fara said. "The legal papers are going to be filled out by the end of the week, without a doubt. However, I don't have time to play this 'waiting game.' We need fighters and we want a half dozen right off of your show-room floor. You have a very short time to get them to me, fueled up and ready to drop ordinance. Get that taken care of and report back to me in less than two hours. We'll go as soon as these birds are ready to fly."

"Y-yes ma'am," The beagle stammered.

* * *

**"This is acting General William Gray calling for Violet Lombardi**," came the sub-space relay communication over her fighter's dash. Violet blinked, scrunching her brows for a moment before answering the channel. 

"This is Violet, go ahead… Sir." She eased into her flight stick, descending towards a standardized orbital pattern above Fichina. She'd not yet dropped Tricky off at Sauria and had only planned on a quick photographic flyby of the frozen planet.

Bill got right to business and said, "I want you to patch in your black box recorder and in-flight camera footage to the frequency of this communication, Miss Lombardi."

"The General of the Cornerian _FLEET_ is personally calling to ask me this?" She frowned in a moment of contemplation, trying to figure out the semantics behind the situation. It was awfully odd for someone of his rank to call her personally, when he had subordinates to do such a job for him. "I'm patching it through now; I don't know why but I have a feeling there's no time for an explanation. Okay, you should be getting it any second, now." She tapped a few buttons while speaking, which were located on the side panel, just beneath her elbow. ASCII text filled one of the smaller monitors on the side, just above her right knee, running through encryption coding. The word "approved" flashed twice and the data transfer link was finally established.

"You're right but I'll fill you in on the basics anyhow," Gray told her. "Since reports of the strange atmospheric vacillation -it's a sort of quavering ribbon of light, you'll easily be able to identify it- there have been strange attacks on the planet's surface."

"Can I wager to assume this is related to the paranormal reports?" Violet asked.

"No clue but a distinctive possibility," The General replied, adding, "The Capital Dome is evacuating due to an outbreak of fire, started by the unknown attacker. The flames have just breached the top of the Capital Dome; I'm sending you the coordinates and I need to have you fly over it so we can verify these reports."

"Egh, consider it done, General." Violet lowered further, belly first, into the atmosphere. A soft scarlet glow surrounded her ship like an aura…

* * *

…**That fiery aura of Violet's ship** mirrored the garnet glow of the Capital Dome. Flames licked up along the sides of the inner roof, striving to reach the oxygen fed through a crack in the top. The rupture in the ceiling began to crumble; the crack grew larger by the minute. Various explosions caused a jarring rumble to be felt throughout the residential dome. There, in the center, Krystal stood with a dangerously narrowed gaze, stalking through the streets hunting for those who were willing to come out of their hiding spaces in an attempt to escape the fiery city. 

A young fox, about 20 years old, darted out of a burning building and into the street. He was heading for the other side of town, where the evacuation exit was located, which took citizens out by subway. She threw her arms outwards, using the power of her telepathy and the intensity of her inner umbrage to force his mind to seize.

The fox crumbled to the cement, flopping over from his momentum. He rolled onto his back, lifting his head and reaching for his stomach. In his mind, he saw an impaling spike reaching from his gut. The serrated edge looked fresh with his own blood, seeming to puddle beneath his back. To the man, it was so realistic that he could feel the wetness of it against his fur and flesh.

"What… happened? It… it hurts so much," He whimpered, trying to sit up but unable to move from the intense pain in his stomach.

"Do you want me to take the pain away?" Krystal asked him, approaching from off to the side. "I know what a stabbing pain in your torso truly feels like. I have the power to stop your pain; to make it go away and never come back… My little darling, I can heal you," She told him.

"Help… help me, please," The man begged. "Take the pain away, I don't want to see this spike in my belly, it hurts so badly." The man sounded confused, not knowing how it even got there to begin with. Krystal placed a tender paw against his head as if trying to comfort him. She gently pet his forehead for a moment then lifted the paw, pointing her index and middle finger outward.

Krystal knelt besides him, using her other paw to draw his head into her lap. With a quick thrust of her arm, those two fingers were submerged into his right eye, until she could reach no further. It killed him instantly and his body went completely limp. He would no longer 'see' the horrific vision that she used to paralyze him with pain and fear.

Krystal continued to cradle his head for a moment, making every death personal to better consume her sour soul. She almost wept for him but her eyes were dry of tears. She'd not had the ability to truly cry for years… There was nothing left but pain. "At least _you_ will find peace, now," She told the dead body that she cradled in her lap. After a moment, Krystal pushed the dead fox from her knees. It slumped to the ground, his ears drooping and his features growing firm, set in the ways of encroaching Riga mortis.

"Now if only _I_ could find release from this world," She muttered, standing up slowly. The fire roared behind her… all around her… It flowed and flickered around the city like a living extension of her Will to hate. It swallowed everything, leaving black, gnarled chaos in its wake. It corrupted the proud city into a smoldering, onyx husk.

The consuming soot still shimmered slightly from glowing embers beneath. From where she stood in the center of an intersection, a collapsed apartment complex on the corner was now burned out. Its grainy dark rooftop lay atop of the rubble, shining like a sea of black diamonds.

Surrounding the woman on all sides was a terrifying canvas painted with only the achromatic colors of charcoal black and glowing ruby. If _anyone_ had the power to taint such a pallid planet, it was Krystal. The ashen debris mixed with the outside snowfall, which acquired an entry through the crack in the roof. It created a sallow rain, beginning to douse her and sections of the city all around that intersection.

Her eyes seemed strangely discolored. While her pupils were but mere pinholes from the glow of the fire, her eyes still took on an ebony coloration. She lifted her wrist to her mouth, pushing the fur and flesh against her fangs. White as the season's first snowfall, her teeth sunk into the flesh, cutting into it. It was sweet relief, if only temporary. Her normally sanguine blood appeared to be of a darker tint in the glow and heat of the surrounding red death. She dropped her paw to her side and the raven-hued liquid began to roll down over her palm, dripping from her fingertips.

Carbon glazed orbs were filled with hatred, gazing over the city with a deeply _hidden_ sense of pride and admiration. The burning City Noir, once the proud Capital of the snowy Fichina was now a shell of its former glory. A form of release, her pent up rage was now dripping from her wrist in liquid form. The physical pain masked the emotional pain just slightly, giving her a transient, ephemeral reprieve. She only prayed that it would be more than the normal, impermanent releases from the past.

Her frenzy finally began to dissolve, as if oozing from her forearm in an evanescent state of euphoria. It took a moment but the self mutilation always elevated her mood to that rapture and deep elation, if only for a few minutes. She sighed in relief, shook off the effects of her post-frenzy then continued onward, looking to move on to the next dome so that she could finally ascertain the truth about this planet's existence and whether or not Corneria assumed that she was dead.

* * *

A/N: _You'll notice I didn't put an author's Note at the top of this chapter today… That's because I enjoyed writing this chapter so much that I just wanted it to kick right in and hit hard like a punch in the jaw. LoL, Fara's scene was amusing to write this time around… I hope you guys enjoyed it. _

**_Do you guys adore, feel sorry for or despise Evil Krystal? _**

_Let me know! _

_In the next chapter, we'll see Star and Krystal clash… the only thing that can defeat the power of a warrior telepath is another telepath… Will the pure of heart be able to defeat the inhumane of heart? We'll soon find out in the next chapter! Also, we'll see more of Violet in the next chapter, which will help Star decide that he is truly confused about his choice in the matters of a life mate. Toodles, boys and girls! See ya soon! Also, check out my MySpace if you REEEALLLY wanna know more about me. myspaceDOTcomFWDSLASHthedrumkit _

_P-sout! _


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter -14-

**Storm and Fire** was the only way to portray the woman standing on Fichina. The lengthy strands of her hair resembled a flowing tress of velvety vermillion. Her contrasting gray fur clung to her curvaceous frame like the rolling clouds of a summer storm. A tuft of scarlet rested at the base of her neck, better drawing attention to the bountiful cleavage displayed by the V-cut top of her flight suit.

The mixture of intense heat with the cold wind that came in through the gaping hole in the dome's ceiling created a gale which reacted with the city's architecture, making a wind tunnel effect that swept the fire from one end of town to the other. That firm, warm breeze toyed with the half-breed lupine's hair; those delicate strands of scarlet cascaded outwards, dancing on a breath of wind like a ballerina to a note of song. The ankle length duster she wore was attempting to lead into the squall like a cape but it was weighed down by weapons which lined it from one end to the other.

Her eyes narrowed, taking in the chaotic scenery all around her. Only one building stood tall in the remains of the city, leading her to believe that it was spared for a reason. The half-vixen's contemptuous curses could be heard beneath her breath, muttering, "What fagolicious bastard would leave the _News Center_ erect?" Her snarky personality had given her the nickname, 'daddy's girl.' She wore polarized amber contacts and her father's old bionic eye patch which he had replaced for a fully functional optical-sensory surrogate eye.

The towering media center's lack of damage assuaged her to head there for investigative purposes. Bliss O'Donnell lifted a gauntlet-style communicator to her lips and said, "Alpha 1 to team; Anne I want you to take two men to the center of the city and plant a circle of charges around the area. Figure out what you need to get it done then blow the fire out. The remaining four, meet me in the town square. I'm going to take a detour through the News Building… It's the last remaining skyscraper in this city so it shouldn't be difficult to find. Contact me personally before you detonate, though."

The crumbling hole in the dome's ceiling allowed soft crystalline flakes of snow to enter from above. The snowfall was turning into rain from the heat, which began mixing with plaster and soot. The roads were now covered with a syrupy gray mud, leaving footprints in her wake. Approaching the building, the first thing Bliss saw was that the glass doors and windows had been blown out.

Crimson's Twin stepped through the door frame, pausing half way through; her eyes flitting about to survey the area and better assess any possible threats. Once she was satisfied that the general area was harmless and empty, she continued in through the main doors. The lobby of the building was in shambles. The floor sparkled with glass fragments which crunched beneath her boots. Occasionally the world outside bellowed with a thunderous groan, causing a puff of plaster and dust to emanate from the walls and ceiling, within the building.

A chandelier lay on the center of the ground becoming a simple obstacle of trash, a far cry from its original intent of beauty and illumination. The remaining bulbs that hadn't broken from the collapse were now dark and the golden metal from which it was made was now tarnished and dirty.

She followed footsteps in the debris to a staircase, opening a door against the far left wall. To her dismay, furniture was piled up directly in front of the door, barring her ascension. She used her body weight to heave herself against the office desks and chairs that were stacked in a massive pile but they wouldn't budge. A slow shake of her head was all she could muster, dismayed by the obstruction.

She surmised that office workers had probably dumped their furnishings over the railing until a pile of heavy objects barred the stairs completely. It was most likely done out of fear that raiders were attacking the city. Whatever was going on here, the workers of this building must have been terrified of the antagonist responsible for decimating their Dome. Now that everyone had been ordered to evacuate, the building was left in an inclusive state of abandonment.

"Dammit to Crimson," she muttered beneath her breath. The vituperative vixen had nothing against traditional cursing but that line had become a staple of her complaining. She saw her brother as a '_son_ of a bitch' and, rather than simply saying the popular catchphrase, Bliss opted for originality combined with the satire of viewing her mother as a female dog.

Bliss pivoted on her left heel, heading back across the lobby towards the elevator. The button in the wall was dim and unresponsive to her touch, causing the half-blooded wolf to snarl. O'Donnell wasn't amused and the delicate moue of disgust painted upon her muzzle was an accurate depiction of her frustration. Her eyes narrowed to slits and her brows furrowed. Her ears were laid back in anger; there was only one option left. Her right paw reached for her left ankle, she knew what she had to do.

Bliss drew a knife from her boot sheath on the inside of her ankle then wedged it between the elevator doors and stepped back for a moment. Tensing her body, the half-vixen swiftly kicked her leg out, striking the handle of the knife. The doors to the elevator swished open and the knife dropped to the floor, lying in glass debris. She snatched the weapon up and stashed it back into the sheath on the side of her left boot, continuing to swear softly.

Bliss poked her head into the elevator shaft, first glancing downwards. What she saw caused her to wince. The elevator car was at the bottom of the shaft, resembling an accordion. There was a distinct smell and the remnants of gore, proving that it was now doubling as a grave. To the left and right, maintenance ladders reached into the gloomy abyss. The rungs to these ladders were cut, rendering them completely useless. She groused softly, cursing her luck.

Without wasting any more time, Bliss bounded into the shaft snatching a cable in her paws. She glanced up, seeing the cable disappear into the darkness above, then she glanced back down to where the cable connected to the elevator car. She shuttered again, seeing the crushed box with part of a paw sticking out of the top. The fur on her neck stood up for a moment, wondering what it must have been like to die in such a way. From there, she began to pull herself upwards. Using only upper body strength, Bliss O'Donnell pulled her weight up the cable, her legs dangling beneath her. She kept her back straight and her head level, grunting softly from the exertion on her shoulders.

A few stories up, her arms began to feel a bit numb. She didn't stop but she did take a moment to glance around the shaft. Apparently, whoever destroyed the lower section of the ladder didn't care to raze all fifteen stories worth of stairs. She was now six stories high, marked by a large stenciled number every so often along the shaft wall. She reached her left paw outwards but couldn't quite reach the ladder against the wall. The cable was pulled taut and she couldn't swing towards it, leaving her with only one option: She had to jump.

"All right, you can make this jump," she told herself, adding, "If you don't, Carey is going to be _pissed_." She braced her feet, side by side, against the metallic cable. Young Bliss O'Donnell tensed her body, readying herself for the jump she was about to make. Once she felt it was the right time to spring, she did so, pushing her feet off of the cable line and throwing her paws outwards. The first rung slapped against her palm and she began to tumble downwards.

She closed her fingers tightly, trying to capture a rung of the ladder to stop her sudden descent. One of the ladder bars caught her chin hard, jerking her head upwards. She gritted her teeth, trying to use her feet and paws to secure a grip on the ladder. Bliss had fallen no less than a meter by the time she captured the metallic rungs, clinging to the steel object for her life like a sailor would cling to driftwood in a turbulent sea. There she held on tightly, just panting for a moment. "That was F'ing graceful," muttered the woman, her ears lying flat upon the top of her head once more. "Damn that hurt," she continued, grousing the rest of the way to the fifteenth floor. Once she arrived, she leaned away from the ladder to try and push the elevator doors open. They remained shut and there was no override switch in sight.

Carefully reaching her right paw to her left boot, Bliss removed the knife and, as before, wedged it into the doors, piercing the rubberized material where they came together. She couldn't quite get the leverage to pry the doors apart because of the lack of proximity. She was just barely at arms length from the doors and so she opted to try the kick maneuver again. She knew she'd lose the knife if she did that but it was better than being stuck.

O'Donnell tightened her paws around the ladder rungs then pushed outwards, extending her arms and kicking her feet away from the ladder. Her body was thrust away from the step rungs but her paws remained tightly clasped around the metal, her knuckles turning white. Her boots hit the knife handle with an excessive amount of force and the blade wedged the doors apart, flipping the tool upwards into the air.

The knife flew away from the parting doors, tumbling down the shaft about three or four meters before the blade caught the wall. Its sharp edge carved into the bulkhead at an angle that allowed for that weapon, one of her better knives, to stick to the siding. It was far beyond her reach even if she went down to its level and so she opted to abandon it.

The half-breed's eyes squinted in the darkness and the mechanical optical eye patch whirred softly, zooming in on the handle. She cursed aloud then put her attention back on the double doors. Bliss swung her body outwards and suddenly released the ladder.

Her aim was accurate and she snatched the ledge, pulling herself up to the floor with a grunt. As she struggled to make it up, she realized that a pair of ankles stood directly in front of her. A blue-furred paw reached down and snatched her by her vest. With a feminine grunt, the other person lifted Bliss out of the elevator shaft, pulling her straight up. Bliss suddenly realized that she was being jerked over this other person's head and so she kicked her legs out, flipping over them and out of their gasp.

Bliss landed, pivoted on her heel and drew her weapon before the other woman could even turn around. She had the barrel against the nape of the blue furred vixen's neck, thumbing the safety to an 'off' position. "Who the hell are you?" O'Donnell growled, cocking a single brow.

"Stop that," Krystal suddenly replied, adding, "Take your eyes off of my arse, you perverted tramp." While the weapon was against the vixen's neck from behind, Bliss was indeed looking at the girl's backside. Krystal turned about, calmly, now having a weapon pressed against her throat. O'Donnell lowered the barrel, so that it was against the vixen's bosom. "Go ahead," Krystal taunted. "Blow a hole through my chest. I'm quite curious to see if I still have a heart in it."

"But I bet you need _this_," said the half-wolf, lowering her blaster so that the barrel grazed against the other woman's pants, right where her thighs met the trunk of her torso. Krystal smirked and stepped forward allowing the weapon to further brush against her body in that most erotic of places.

"Sweet heart, I've not used it in two and a half _decades_. You're not scaring me, _Bliss O'Donnell_." Krystal's smile widened, looking over the scarlet haired woman with a playful expression. "Go on, pull the trigger. You can't because you find me attractive. That's rather bad judgment on the battlefield, young warrior."

Bliss tilted her head slightly, un-furrowing her brow. "But I have you right where I want you… if you even flinch wrong, you'll drop down into that elevator shaft with a new hole between your legs. And what in the hell do you _mean_ twenty-five years without getting laid? That's pathetic; you a prude?"

"There aren't any men _worth_ bedding," Krystal countered, lifting her paws and placing them on Bliss' shoulders. She began to walk forward, causing O'Donnell to backpedal a bit. Krystal then added, "Oh, I see you feel much the same way."

"You figured that out all by yourself or is it the look in my eyes?" Bliss replied, taking three steps back before opening her stance for balance. She firmly planted her feet into the floor, standing solid and stoic. No matter what happened, she wanted to keep this chick close to the elevator shaft… just incase.

"I'm a telepath, my dear," Krystal replied, taking another step forward to invade the half-lupine's personal space. "Your name is Bliss O'Donnell, you have a brother named Crimson and your father is…. Oh, I _know_ your father. That's strange; I didn't know he had children… I thought perhaps it was just a popular last name. Well then, this changes everything."

"Oh does it?" Bliss sneered, stepping forward. She placed her left paw on Krystal's hip, guiding the vixen up against the wall, adjacent to the elevator doors. She kept the gun between the vixen's thighs and now pressed her bullet-proof vest against the azure-furred woman's body, leaning up to whisper into Krystal's ear. "You were stepping on my toes. I don't like when people step on my toes…" She pushed herself forward; her body was still flush against Krystal's own. "_This_ is what it feels like to have someone taking up your personal space… I hope it annoys the hell out of you," She hissed softly, grinding up against Krystal's body once more just to emphasize her point.

"I flew with your father," Krystal replied. Bliss stepped back, looking dumbfounded. "Not for very long, but after the Anglar race was defeated, I joined StarWolf for a short time."

"What?" O'Donnell asked, putting her paws on her hips. The gun was now pointing at the floor in another direction and Bliss was far enough back that both women felt a bit more comfortable now. The half-lupine's eyes raked over Krystal, taking in every detail from her stance to the woman's facial features. The Optical eye patch handed down from her father did the rest… From what she could see, this chick was telling the truth… either that or the lady _thought_ she was telling the truth.

The vixen shrugged. Her left eye was partially obscured with those beautiful locks of sapphire which were carelessly tossed back over her shoulder with a flicker of her right paw. "I left StarWolf and went out on my own. From there, I destroyed Sauria and obliterated Fichina," Krystal explained.

"From what I can tell," Bliss said, analyzing Krystal with the computerized eye-patch. "You're telling the truth but I can tell you right now," added Bliss, glancing furtively over her own shoulder to make sure they were alone on this top floor, "Sauria hasn't gone anywhere. And you're standing on Fichina RIGHT NOW, genius."

"Oh, is that why there is so much snow out there?" Krystal shot back, narrowing her gaze and looking away for a moment. "Yes, I realize that-which-is quite problematic to me. I eviscerated both planets with extreme prejudice and I did it with great zeal, O'Donnell. The last thing I remember before I appeared here was a war against Corneria. They used some sort of new weapon and now I'm here."

"I want to punch you for lying," Bliss said, pausing for a moment before adding, "But with this bionic implant I should be able to see signs that you're not telling the truth. The problem is, you believe every word you say so completely that there isn't even the slightest of change in your iris. This leads me to believe that _you_ believe everything you've just told me, which leads _me_ to believe that you're _crazy_."

"It's quite possible," Krystal mused thoughtfully, tapping a lacquer-coated nail against her lower lip. "I have _no idea_ how I got here and I'm as sure as can be that I destroyed both of those planets upon my return to the Lylat system."

"Return huh?" O'Donnell felt amused by the situation. Here they were, having a trite conversation in the middle of a burning city under evacuation. It was one of those quirky instances in life that would be remembered later for the satire with which those very moments were laced.

Krystal drew the finger from her lip then folded her arms and said, "StarWolf… your father's entire group, defeated the Anglar attackers with my help. They were pardoned of their previous crimes and hailed as heroes. Afterwards, I joined their team only for Lylat to ostracize me as a traitor for betraying the StarFox team in order to help StarWolf defeat the Anglars."

"This is news to me; keep going," replied Bliss.

"Well I wasn't about to stick around if the system was being ungrateful," Krystal continued, adding, "So I went off to another system. I took what knowledge I learned from StarFox and became a rather successful bounty hunter on my own. Telepathy gave me an edge for capturing anyone who got in my way," she explained. "I was still having a difficult time getting over Fox and, during one of my missions I became sidetracked and found myself hunting a telepathic group of creatures who used their powers for evil. They knew I was struggling with my heart and used it to attack me. I was put into a torture chamber where I was forced to relive that breakup night after night for weeks on end. It was their mental torture that caused me to snap. When I escaped, I ripped them to pieces and came back to Lylat for closure. I didn't realize I would be overcome by the desire for vengeance until I was face to face with Fox McCloud. I put him into his grave and simply couldn't stop punishing him. He's nearly every man I've come across."

"Twisted," Bliss muttered softly before adding, "that's awesome. How many men have you killed?"

"That's an awkward question," she retorted in a soft tone, lowering her head, looking down at the floor. "But," she whispered, lifting just her eyes, "I'm afraid I don't rightly care for Lesbianism."

"I might be able to change your mind," Bliss told her then she grinned and said, "But Carey would kill me so… forget it." Bliss then folded her own arms and told Krystal, "StarFox defeated the Anglars. StarWolf struggled as a team after that but Fox McCloud and his wife, some telepathic blue vixen from another system, threw StarWolf table scraps every now and then. My father doesn't really care much for McCloud or his son."

Krystal took a moment to probe Bliss' mind and could only ascertain that the girl was telling the truth. O'Donnell shrugged and said, "I like the way you tell it, though. I've never met Star McCloud but my brother hangs around with the kid pretty often. He's got his mother's telepathic thing."

"Fox McCloud never married," Krystal objected with a grimace and a puckered brow. "I killed him with my bare paws. Is that what they're telling people in history books? They're telling you people that he beat the Anglars and married with a son?"

"That's what happened," Bliss contended, nodding firmly. "Fox, his wife and their team were attacked with a Gravity Bomb and were labeled Missing In Action. No one has seen them in about five or six years now. The only survivors were his kid and the Retired General, Peppy Hare." Again, Krystal scanned the other woman who apparently wasn't lying. Krystal wasn't sure where the girl got her facts but the girl believed them as if she lived through the history herself. And in a sense, she _had_ through her brother. After all, Crimson was the young McCloud's best friend.

"Fox McCloud never married; he died before he became a father I assure you." Krystal frowned, wondering if she was insane or if the girl in front of her was. It was odd, regardless. "I'm sure we can access the sub-space internet grid from this building. I want to see this as documented information on the grid. The city can wait; it won't burn any slower if I take a moment to look some things up."

"I'm here to stop the fires," Bliss explained as the two walked away from the elevator, heading back towards one of the offices.

Krystal walked besides the other woman, conversing casually. "Actually, I need your help, Miss O'Donnell. Don't worry, it will be a profitable endeavor for you. Just hear me out before you go stopping my fires…"

* * *

**McCloud and Violet sat together**, alone, on the deck of the GreatFox. The pilot turned to her, tilting his head in mid-sentence and told her, "You know, I don't know what it is but you've been hiding something from me ever since you came back and I can't concentrate well enough to figure out what it is."

"What does that have to do with you wanting to change your name?" Violet asked, reverting to their original topic of conversation. Her storm-gray eyes flitted over his form, nonchalantly reaching out to take his tie into her paw. She had helped him get the knot just right before his media interview an hour and a half ago. In her eyes, it was silly to know that the media wanted to ask him about his mission to Fichina. For some reason they were interested to know that the son of Fox McCloud planned to save someone from an attack. Everyone wanted a hero and the News wanted to have a story that everyone loved.

"You're skirting my question because I skirted yours," said Star with a shrug and a slight grin. "I just hate my first name. You already know that, though and so I decided to change the topic… what have you been bottling up that you don't want to tell me?"

"Listen," Violet told him with an honest tone. The sweetness of her voice was still there but she was matter-of-fact, now. "We went a year without speaking save for one or two actual occurrences. I realize that was mostly my fault because I avoided you out of inner confusion and turmoil. That's a long time and a lot of things have happened in that time. Then we started talking a little and that lasted for two months but I wasn't sure that we had enough of a foundation laid out to jump back into a relationship full force. Last time, you blew me off for a mercenary dream making hardly any money. Crimson was being an idiot and I felt slighted. I know it was complex but I had good reasons behind my decision to disappear from you. And one day, when I feel you're mature enough to handle what our future relationship will evolve into… I'll tell you. But that doesn't mean I love you any less; I adore you." She tugged gently on his tie, drawing him to her in a soft kiss.

The kiss lasted a few moments and was finally interrupted by Violet who placed her palm on his cheek. "You know, I really feel that you betrayed me for your hobby. It's a difficult thing to cope with, knowing that you put it so high on your list of priorities. But, now that you guys have rescued Sauria and are planning to rush into action on Fichina, I'm inclined to admit that your lofty goals have paid off. While it's not quite lucrative, it's _not_ impossible to make enough money doing this to… I don't know; say, raise a family or what-have-you."

"Why Violet," Star teased playfully, "Are you trying to raise a family with me? Heh, we've not had sex in over a year."

"I know," she admitted, turning away from him for a moment and walking back to the nearest chair over at the communications terminal. "Thirteen months, hon. Believe me, I couldn't ever forget it. But it was great and it may be great again. We're laying down fresh stability with which to build the groundwork of our future foundation. That's important, you know? I just hope you don't grow to hate me or something."

"Oh stop," McCloud told her. "Don't give me that; I don't think I could bring myself to hate you," he continued telling her before pausing. His moment of repose was interrupted by a computer noise adjacent to the view screen. "I have Fichina in range, now," he said, adding, "Let's get ready for our mission. We can finish flirting whenever we want."

"Of course," she said. Lavender locks with frosted indigo tips framed her face, almost in the shape of a heart that came to together at the bridge of her feline-esque nose. She was often a classy dresser but on occasion, Violet also enjoyed wearing something a bit flashier. Today had been the time for that; she opted for something comfortable. However, because they were now in range to Fichina and she wasn't wearing a flight suit, Star felt it best that they go and ready themselves.

Her wide-cuffed pants had a deep vermillion flame that reached up from the ankle, stopping just beneath her left knee. A loose fitting blouse added a hint of conformity to her appearance contrasting handsomely with golden bracelets which hung from her wrists. Retro fashion hoop earrings, normally too large to work for a woman of her lithe stature, complemented her appearance; something she could easily get away with, due to her semi-broad shoulders and towering wings.

Makeup was something Violet applied sparingly, using to augment rather than to hinder her appearance. However, she was quite liberal with the eye liner, which enunciated those stormy hues in a surprisingly tasteful manner. Angelic feathers were smoothed down, glossy looking behind her shoulders. The top of her wings rested on either side of her head while the bottom tips were folded neatly behind her, half-crisscrossing at the small of her back.

She stood up once more and took graceful strides back towards her ex-mate. The bellowing cuffs of her denim trousers brushed across the deck with a subtle hint of sound. It was akin to ashes being strewn gently across textured rice paper; a whisper of audio that caused the fox's ear to flicker as she approached him. His soft green orbs, a trait that came from his mother and father, came to gaze fondly upon her. She was such a treat for the eyes to behold; he couldn't help but watch her sauntering hips shifting with every step.

She took his tie into her paws once more and reached for his chin with her other, lifting his muzzle so that their eyes met. Another kiss was given followed by a whisper against his lips. "Good luck on this mission. We're doing this together and I appreciate that; I still love you." She then patted the side of his face, stroking her fingers through the fur. Once the kiss ended and her muffled words became silence, she turned for the door and left to ready her ship.

* * *

**Fichina opened up before them, **its large gray form was smooth and lustrous looking from the reflection of light off of its snowy surface. At this altitude, the planet was an embodiment of the phrase "Heavily Body" and the silence that encompassed it only added to its beauty. A deep red tint was added in to the blue and white background seen through the cockpit canopy; it was like a swirling pallet of sunswept hues as the team's fighters sank into Fichina's sky, heating from the descent against the atmosphere.

"I'm getting a transmission," Crimson said over the communications grid. "I'm going to patch it through to everyone, tell me what you guys make of this."

The message showed the background of a news agency with the logo in the corner and a blue furred woman at the anchorman's desk. Her hair was slightly longer than shoulder length and her face was beautiful. Her eyes matched Star McCloud's own in coloration and shape and yet she looked different than Krystal… or at least different than he remembered his mother appearing.

"Attention, people of Fichina," the woman began. "It _appears_ that I do not belong in your world; but I'm here now. It _appears_ that my quest for vengeance has been subverted by my desire to learn, giving you precious moments to leave. What I've found out is quite shocking; it is beyond the comprehension of troglodytes. However, I do not like to leave my work unfinished and will soon return to my quest: laying waste to this planet. I'm giving you, the people of Fichina, twenty-four hours to evacuate before I destroy it. You've been warned. Any attempts to stop me will be met with extreme prejudice. I advise you to take this opportunity to flee the planet. Sauria is next. You've been warned." The transmission concluded, leaving an image of the news logo on the tiny dashboard monitor.

"She looks like your mother," Violet said over the radio. "Could she possibly be from Cerinia?"

Star nodded with a frown. "She _is_ from Cerinia but she's _not_ my mother. I can sense that she's a member of my race but I also sense she's troubled beyond words. Her thought patterns are different from my mom. I can't explain it. Let's set up a base of operations at the dome fifteen minutes south of the Capital. We'll scout the area first then devise a plan for a direct assault."

Fara quickly cut in, asking, "You still want to take her down even though she's a member of your doomed race?"

"While I appreciate the concern, I have no choice," Star replied. "Besides, this woman _wants_ to be defeated. She _wants_ to be released from some sort of pain I can't begin to comprehend. Maybe she was there during Cerinia's destruction or something but… her very aura is laced with black streaks of hate and corruption. It's pale and… filled with an …orangish-red mixture of hate and intense hurt. She simply wants to be released. Her hurt is acute, radiating with… they're like… _waves_ around her body."

"What's the order, team leader?" Crimson asked. His query was to the point, bringing his friend back to the reality of their _own_ situation.

Star thought for a moment, simply watching the planet enlarge before him. Finally, he said, "I want you and Fara to set up base camp. Violet and I are going to scout out the remains of the Capital Dome and we'll decide our best course of action upon return to the field camp. Let's get started: split up and we'll meet you guys shortly."

"Let's get this show on the road," Crimson said, breaking formation. Fara formed up adjacent to Red's wing. O'Donnell and Phoenix changed their trajectory for the dome just south of the Capital dome which left Star and Violet alone. The new Arwing, alongside the second Generation Cat's Paw fighter, raced towards the target objective and landed in the snow outside of the evacuation site at the main entrance of the Capital. The rounded structure resembled a large amphitheater or sports stadium but on a far larger scale. There was a gaping hole in the top, adding to the stadium-like appearance to some degree.

The fighters sank a few inches into the compressed white powder and a soft hiss of steam screamed out in protest as the hot hull was cooled quickly by the tightly compacted snow. A few yards away, there was a group of bundled up people arranging an evacuation procedure by directing a line of citizens from the main entrance of the dome to a maintenance staircase, about 10 feet from the large doors. The staircase led into the snow, heading into a subway tunnel. Heat rose in waves above the staircase, also emanating from the main entrance to the dome due to the fire within and the blistering cold outside.

Star and Violet left their craft and headed for the main entrance, stopping first to speak with a man who had a badge on his coat. "I'm Star McCloud of the StarFox team. I'm here on the orders of Acting General Bill Gray to investigate and terminate the person responsible for this attack. How do you get to the News Center?"

One of the cops, a penguin of all species, turned to the two pilots and shrugged slightly. "There's not much you can do, we can't determine if there is a small army of stealth infantry or if it's just one person; the News Building is the only building left standing at full height so just head towards that. Do you have a full team to support you, Mister McCloud?" The man immediately cleared his throat, reverting to silence.

"Don't you know who StarFox is?" Star asked, looking incredulous. He then shook his head slowly and said, "I'm doing recon work before we strike. Yes, I have a team to back me up! They're setting up base camp. May I go inside?"

"It's a free planet," the cop said with a shrug. "Good luck, SkyFox."

"_Star_Fox," Violet quickly corrected, taking McCloud's paw. "C'mon, let's get our work done. He's busy and we have a lot ahead of us." The two went in through the main doors, wading through the line of people exiting the dome. Once inside, Violet approached Star and leaned into his ear and asked, "Did you notice that most of those people were women and children? There are hardly any males; don't you find that strange?"

McCloud was only half paying attention. The fact that she said, "_Star_Fox" in such a way was enough to make his skin crawl were it not for the fur holding the goose bumps down. "I _sense_ something 'strange' but I can't put my finger on it. Sometimes I hate being half Cornerian because I can't sense as much as I want to be able to."

"Look," said Violet, changing the subject. She lifted her left paw, singling out the News Building against the red haze of the burning city. The dark smoke rising above the conurbation was like a parting soul colored in a garnet tint, so that the billowing cloud resembled a deep shade of blood. "There it is, let's go! It's not far." The two took off in a sprint but not before retrieving respirators from their gear. Indeed it _wasn't_ very far; the building was easily accessible and the closer they got, the more McCloud began to look upset.

The fox stepped in through the broken doors which once held glass panels, two inches thick. Violet stepped in behind him and gasped, seeing the woman from the News transmission earlier. The woman was standing in the center of the room, back straight and elevated in stature by lengthy five inch stiletto heels. Krystal narrowed her gaze at the two and simply said, "You're from Cerinia. I thought you were all dead."

"I thought the same about you," McCloud replied. "Why are you doing this? I can't let it continue, lady. I'm Star McCloud of the StarFox team and I'm here to take you outside so I can put you on ice." Violet cringed, hearing how lame his one-liner sounded. McCloud, on the other paw, kept his stoic poker face in an attempt to show a strong resolve.

"StarFox is dead," Krystal snapped, narrowing her gaze further. Her long lashes did well to obscure the color of her eyes, scowling at the man. "Fox McCloud doesn't _have_ a son, I'd have known about it before I _killed_ him with my _bare paws_," she told the two. "I'm doing this because of Fox McCloud, if you must know. His betrayal leads into the culture of Lylat, where men are _too_ protective of their mates. It's a foolish society of miscreants who deserved to be punished. I'm here as the scourge of this system!"

McCloud held his paws outwards, defensively as if to calm her. His attempt at diplomacy only angered her further and so he dropped his arms back to his side. "I sense you're in great pain," Star began, frowning thoughtfully. Everywhere around him was destruction. The lobby was a derelict; the floor sparkled with glassy ruin. McCloud slowly approached the woman, cautiously lifting his right paw, once more. "I don't want to fight someone who is a part of me but I can't let you murder, either. I know I may not be able to fathom this inner turmoil you're experiencing …as I've never been 'betrayed' before, but this can't continue any further."

"Oh, but you, of all people, should be able to understand what betrayal is all about," Krystal riposted, tightening her paw into a fist. "After all, _your_ mate has betrayed you in a way that even _I_ cannot fathom. Surly, being telepathic, you can sense what she's done!"

Star cast a quick gaze over at Violet who could only rejoinder with a frown, lowering her eyes. Her tail drooped, coiling around her right ankle and her ears sank downwards. Star furrowed his brows in confusion then looked back to the blue-furred woman who resembled his mother. "I'm part Cornerian. I can't concentrate enough to sense what she's hiding. That's beside the point. She's back in my life now after a long hiatus and there has been no betrayal. If I was schooled on Cerinia I might be a little more effective with my abilities but I've learned what I know from my mother and self experience."

"How sad," Krystal muttered, lifting her chin slightly to look down her nose at him. "Over a year ago, she disappeared from your life …hurt by your refusal to put her above your dream of making this team a reality. Now she's back but she's not even told you the secret she's bottled up in her heart. She bore you a son and _never_ told you. Her mother, Katt Monroe-Lombardi is raising this child with the surname "Lombardi" and she is _hiding_ that from you. What kind of mate have you chosen, Mister McCloud? And what kind of name is 'Star' anyhow?"

The fox winced twice, first for being told about Violet's duplicity and second because, upon publication of her secret, Violet Lombardi confirmed the perfidy of her actions by beginning to sob softly. The winged feline turned away, balling her paws into fists. She radiated with humility, clinching her eyes shut in guilt. Star could feel his chest beginning to drop. He didn't need this to happen right now. He was trying to remain professional and to have learned this from an adversary was a difficult shame to swallow.

"So, as you can see," Krystal said to them with a dark smile, "we're both victims of the treachery of our first mate. 'Falling in Love' is a cute way of saying that you're giving another being the immense power to hurt your heart, Mister McCloud. You've done nothing but set yourself up for betrayal and the infidelity of her deceit is your _reward_ for loving her. This makes you nothing more than a fool, as I once was."

Violet's mental defenses had dropped, letting Star see the full truth and the harsh reality of what had happened. Before he could demand an explanation she simply stated, "You left me for your team and when I was pregnant, I was emotional. I pulled away and distanced myself from you because I thought if you can't put me first, how can you put a _family_ first? Besides, you are just a twenty-two years old boy, Star. I didn't think your priorities were in order."

"My priorities were to bringing back StarFox," he admitted before adding, "But for you to hide it from me goes to show that your priorities aren't any less screwed up and given the choice, I would have certainly put a family at the top of my list, dammit."

"Speaking of Priorities," Violet snapped defensively, "You're arguing with me instead of putting your work first. Stop talking about this and draw your blaster, McCloud." Star opened his muzzle to protest but Violet drew her own sidearm, pointing it at Krystal while saying, "Hello! Star, she's decimated this city and _killed_ people. If you don't stop bickering, you'll not live to see your son, now stop being an idiot and pull your F'ing gun."

"This conversation isn't over," Star snapped, drawing his blaster and pointing it at Krystal. "So you were right," he told the other woman. "I now understand betrayal but I'll be damned if it makes me want to murder people because I'm not twisted like that. Come quietly, we'll turn you in alive."

"I'm afraid my mission of vengeance transcends your mission of justice," replied the sapphire vixen. "You're a special person, Mister McCloud… if that _really_ _is_ your last name. I'm going to let you live, boy. I don't know why; maybe it's because you were unfairly rewarded, same as me… but for some reason, it seems like there's something else I don't know about you yet. This is where I take my leave for now."

"No you don't," Star said, firing off a shot of his blaster. Krystal was fast, however. She drew her staff with one quick movement of her paw, activating the blue force shield which caused the shot to be displaced. The shield flickered, absorbing the energy. Star tossed his weapon to Violet who caught it backhanded then he charged the azure-furred vixen, drawing his own staff. Krystal's eyes widened, recognizing the staff as exactly identical to her own, which should _not_ have been realistically viable.

Because the two weapons were identical in every facet, his staff was able to penetrate her shield. She jerked back at the last possible second, using the shaft of her weapon to block his attack. "Impossible, only this staff should be tuned to penetrate its own shield frequency!" she cried, drawing her left paw back while using her right one to keep her staff held outwards in a defensive posture.

Star recognized the movement and twisted his staff about, pivoting on his right heel. He swiped at her left paw then brought up his left knee, knocking her back. She swept her staff at his legs and Star quickly jumped, tucking his feet beneath him to avoid the low strike. He quickly extended his left foot, catching her shoulder in the midst of his vertical ascension.

Krystal was spun about but she was far more experienced with years upon years of combat under her belt as a bounty hunter. She twisted about, leaning into the spin her body was forced to accept then plunged her left paw into his gut as he dropped back to his feet. The surprise counter-attack caught McCloud off guard.

Using the ancient technique of Dahn Daju (A/N: _Chapter 4, Reflections Of Krystal_), the cobalt colored Cerinian thrust her left paw outwards, catching Star in the gut. The transference of mental power into physical force caused intense kinetic energy to be placed into his body, throwing him clear across the lobby. Thrown into Violet, the both of them tumbled to the floor, covered in glass and plaster dust. A cloud of that chalky debris billowed up around the two and by the time it settled, Krystal was gone.

"Where in the hell did she go, dammit?" Violet said, pulling herself out from beneath the light weight vulpine pilot. "She got away, can you sense her?"

"I have no idea, the area feels empty," Star muttered in reply, sitting up and dusting himself off. "She must know telepathy abilities far more advanced than my own. We should get back to base camp and figure out a pattern to sweep the city. There aren't many safe places for her to go if she stays in this dome and if she _does_ sneak out, then somebody is bound to spot her; she's got blue fur."

"Who was she?" Violet asked.

Star's stomach dropped again, just thinking about how to answer the question. "I swear, if I didn't sense a completely different mind and pattern of thoughts behind her eyes, I would tell you it was my mother." He stood up, pulling a shard of glass from his forearm with his claws then he turned back to Violet, leering at her with a callous gaze. "What's his name? How old is he? What have I missed?"

"His name is…" She sighed, looking away. "I named him after my father because he didn't have a son of his own; Falco Lombardi. He's a few months old and you've missed _everything_ so far. His first laugh, first smile, feeding him, his first bath…"

"Just stop," Star replied with a deep sigh, not knowing how to take this news.

"…His first tooth," she continued, looking back at the doorway, just incase the other woman came back.

"Will you stop?" Star shouted, jerking involuntarily as he pulled another piece of glass from his flesh and fur. "Damn, Violet… why couldn't you just tell me?"

"I was pregnant and going through a lot of emotional drama and I'm sorry all right? There's nothing I can say or do to fix it so what in the hell do you want me to do?" she shouted, throwing his weapon back at him. The blaster bounced harmlessly off of Star's torso, landing at his feet. He replaced his staff into the sheath on his back then knelt down to pick up the gun, putting it in a holster on his hip. "You always act like a child about things like this, especially in the past," she told him. "I don't know what else you want me to do but how can I expect a man to be understanding who thinks he knows everything just because he's telepathic? You weren't there so you can't possibly know what was going on, so just drop it and stop drudging up past history that I cannot change."

"But I deserve some sort of explanation," McCloud countered, gawking at her. He could sense that she was hurting and full of guilt but at the same time, it was difficult to feel what she was going through because of the intense emotion in his heart. His mind was cloudy and he couldn't concentrate, leaving him confused and reeling from the shock of this news. "The worst part of all of this is that I had to find out from someone else."

Violet was defensive and quickly grew confrontational. "I had to find out from others that you were off gallivanting with Crimson and running your 'team' on odd jobs when I was left sitting at a tramcar station, abandoned by you. OH, I bet you remember that now, don't you?"

"This isn't the same thing!" Star shouted. "It's a baby! You don't just go nine months plus an _additional_ four months without saying a word!" He threw his paws up into the air and exclaimed, "I'm returning to the camp site. Let's go."

"I'll see you there," Violet muttered in reply. "I need some space from you; you're acting like a complete ass. There's nothing I could do about any of this and you're shouting at me like I could fix this whole thing and make you happy again. If I find that blue bitch on the way back to camp, I'm going to _kill_ her."

"She didn't do this," Star snarled softly. "If anything, she shed light on a situation that you could have resolved by simply talking to me." He started for the door, leaving her in the lobby.

"You're just going to tear off like that, huh?" she called out.

"You said you wanted space, as if thirteen months wasn't enough," Star replied, glancing over his shoulder as he stepped through the broken doorway. "Did you just want me to move on all together?"

"You're the telepath," Violet replied. "Why don't _you_ tell me what I want since you know every-damn-thing."

"I don't have time for this," he grumbled softly.

Violet glowered in anger, letting her emotions get the best of her. "You didn't have time for it over a year ago," she shot back. "Fine, I told you I wanted my space, go on. We'll talk about this later."

"That's what I want," Star replied rather simplistically. "I just want to know what was going on. Do you at least have pictures back on GreatFox that you brought with you?"

"I'll e-mail them to you," she muttered, walking out through the adjacent door, stepping through the empty space where a glass panel once rested. "I came back to see if we could work out our differences out without arguing; to see if you were ready to be a father. Nothing has changed, we still argue and you still harp on me about it."

Star suddenly exploded, "Are you kidding me? You once _lied_ about your _name_!"

Violet stopped in the middle of the street, turning back around to face him. She threw her arms up in the air, her wings spreading wide, visualizing her frustration and anger. "I didn't want a relationship with a man who only wanted to date me because my father is famous; people think he has money and so I told you a different name! It wasn't to deceive you, Star! It was to see if you were going to date me for _me_! Why do you always throw those things in my face?"

Star's voice lowered and his ears laid flat. His eyes dropped to the ground and he sighed. Finally, he told her, "Because I sense when you're hiding something and it hurts."

"Eye for a goddess-damned eye," she spat, looking away so that she didn't have to see his pitiful expression of hurt; it made her feel guiltier than she already felt and she didn't want that. She'd come back to repair their relationship and make that the priority before introducing a new, stressful and volatile situation that ran the risk of ruining their reconciliation. She wanted to build a strong foundation with him _before_ bringing their child into the picture.

"You don't mean that," Star mumbled softly.

"What?" She turned back to face him. The silence of the city was deafening because of the debris and plaster-like ashes that covered the grounds. Either charred black or blanketed in a dirty gray, the city rather resembled a war-zone and the powdery substance was absorbing the sound to make it deafeningly silent. "What did you just say?"

Star raised his voice, repeating, "I said you _don't_ mean what you _just_ said. You haven't done all this because you feel that you're getting even with me. You've done this because you thought it was the right thing and because it was a c-, a freakin'; it was a confusing situation, you did the best that you… I mean… you did the best you could with what you had." His brain was racing faster than he could speak and his stammering came from his state of frustration.

"Don't start trying to read me like a book," Violet told him. "Yes, you're right but you've been ostracizing me over this poor decision for the last ten minutes. I still love you and that's all that should matter but sometimes I don't think you love me _enough_. If you did, you wouldn't put your hobbyist team before your fiancé. You wouldn't just write me off when I disappear. You'd have come looking for me and realized that I have your son I'm busy taking care of. I waited to see if you'd just show up and you never did. That says a lot, Star. It says you didn't care. But then I decided _I'd_ make the first move and come back. I fly in and I even join the team that you abandoned me for time after time. I put my neck out to see what you'd do because I couldn't stand to think of what life might be like _without _you. You're my rock of stability, McCloud. You're an anchor to keep me sane and sometimes, I let myself get caught up in drama. But I'm here because I _love_ you."

"Maybe we just don't understand what _love _really is or what it's _supposed_ to be," Star said, remembering the blue vixen's words with a frown. That woman had radiated with such intense pain that he had to wonder how parallel his hurt compared to her own. The problem was, he didn't allow himself to lose his sense of identity involving the rest of the universe. "Can I go and see the boy? Can I see little Falco?"

"Just leave it alone right now," Violet replied flatly. "We have a lot to repair first. One step at a time, please."

Star threw his paws back up into the air once more. "You're going to _deny_ me to see my son?" Star shouted. "Are you kidding me, you selfish bitch?" His vocalization was powerful, underlining the undertone of his anger. He didn't mean to call her an insulting name but he was completely outraged that she would refuse him to see the child. He was equally upset that he wasn't given a choice in naming it or being a part of the boy's life. He felt awkward knowing that his proud family line wasn't being given the chance to continue its surname but at the same time, he could _partially_ understand her strange reason, no matter how twisted he felt it really was.

The ambient milieu still retained its deep garnet haze from the fires throughout the city. That, combined with the smoggy gloom towering above and the light yet dirty drizzle of melted snowfall fluttering over the city. The mucky soot-mixed slosh from the rain water created a sticky sort of mud that coated the streets from one end of the dome to the other. With minimal sewage due to the fact that it was an indoor city, the streets were starting to fill with the sludge, making for a sticky step with every frustrating footfall.

Star stopped in the middle of the street, looking back at the news building for a moment. The air was equally thick in a metaphorical sense, laden with foreboding. He felt as though he was being watched by an ominous presence and his apprehension was growing. Violet had not answered his last inquiry and so he decided to drop the subject and get out of the line of fire. Finally, he said, "Let's just get the hell out of here, please?"

"Fine," she replied with a slow nod. "And Star, you _can_ see him but now just isn't the time. Also, my mother isn't quite fond of you because she thinks you've been avoiding me _and_ the situation with the baby. I know you didn't know but if you really loved me, you'd have come to see what was going on and you'd have found out for yourself. She's upset that you spited me and … I don't blame her." Violet pointed in one direction with one paw then pointed in the opposite direction with her other, changing the subject. "While it's best that we split up because I think we both need a few minutes of time to ourselves, I guess we should chalk it up to trying to cover more ground on the way back."

"Sure, I can handle that," Star replied, cooling down to some degree. He would have a fit about this later but right now, he was trying to remain civil so that he could see his son when this entire situation was finished. "I want to change his name. At least _hyphenate_ it, for goodness sake; does he have wings?"

"He doesn't have wings," Violet replied in a soft voice. "I'll see you back at camp." She turned left and began walking down the street. Once she was out in the open, she parted those large feathery appendages and leapt upwards into the air. With a large whooshing sound, she flapped the wings, pushing herself upwards. Star simply watched her, slightly envious of her abilities. After she disappeared from his view, he began walking back towards the Evacuation Site.

Star pulled his communicator from his pocket and flipped it open, dialing Crimson. The half-breed wolf opened the channel on the other end and said, "Hey, you guys have been gone a while, did you find a clue?"

"We ran into the chick and I fought her, Red," said Star. "I don't even know how it happened but the attacker caused a ruckus; Violet and I …got into a fight. This chick looks like my mother, blue fur and everything, and she's the one responsible for _everything_ that happened to this dome. And right in the middle of it all, she started a huge argument between me and Violet and it's _all_ screwed up. I don't even know how to begin to tell you what's going on."

Crimson's words of wisdom were the _easy_ was out. "Just dump her, dude. She's high maintenance and spoiled and you should just find someone else."

"She has a kid," Star started tightening his jaw.

"Even _more_ reason to kick her to the curb," O'Donnell interrupted.

Star shook his head and said, "No man. _My_ kid and she named him after her father… first _and_ last name. She didn't give me a choice in the matter. I'm devastated …and she has no clue; she feels that this is _my_ fault for not making any effort to assert myself back into her life and that it was a test I failed, showing her that I just don't care when she's not in my life. The situation is completely Charlie Foxtrot."

"Look, is she on her way back here?" Crimson asked. "If so, I'll meet you in the field and we'll go looking for the crazy blue lady again. Don't get me wrong," said O'Donnell, "I love her like a cold sore but Violet has the ability to _hurt_ you, man. Don't let girls do that to you and you'll be much better off. No, really… Violet is a great pilot and one hell of a mechanic. It's just that you guys are polar opposites and while opposites _do_ attracted, you guys straight up bounce right off of one another and land in the next zip code."

"I give her that ability because I love her so much," he muttered mostly to himself. "We may beef a lot but I love her. I know it's been about two years since I've seen her last but I mean, the feeling is still pretty fresh, you know? It's difficult to explain because I will admit… the distance has caused me to feel less drawn to her but … Right now, I have a good reason to be mad at her and what can I say? I love her but, damn."

"Yeah," O'Donnell replied softly. "She's really got your kid huh? Why didn't you tell me, anyhow?"

"Don't start," Star mumbled. "Had I known, I'd have told you, believe me."

"That's just messed up," Crimson retorted. "You're freakin' telepathic and you didn't _know_ you have a kid?"

"Don't start, Red," McCloud repeated with a sigh of frustration. "She's difficult to read because I get emotional when I'm around her. It's all screwed up and now I'm so angry I can't see straight and all I can do is just bottle it up because I'm out here in the field where I could easily come under fire. Just get your tail out here and come well armed."

"Like how well armed? I'm on my way already," Crimson said from the other line. "Do you want me to bring a dragon sniper rifle?"

"That might work," Star said. "She has a staff like mine and it can deflect normal blaster energy. She's pretty deranged, I could sense that she was messed up in the head and I don't want to take the chance of getting one of us killed. I'll see you when you arrive. I'm going to call Fara and warn her to watch out for an emotional Violet." The communicator was closed then flipped back open. Star dialed in Fara's headset frequency and on the other side of the line, he heard a click of her picking up.

"Phoenix here," she replied, pronouncing her surname as "_fennecs_".

"Violet is heading your way," McCloud warned. "She's best if avoided right now; we just had a massive fight… really unprofessional of us but… it's messed up. I didn't even KNOW! She apparently has my kid and…" He suddenly stopped. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to go into this with you; you're not our babysitter… it's cool. We'll just… We'll resolve it. Just know that she's on her way and she's in a pissy mood."

"This isn't the first time I've seen pilots with 'Baby's Momma Drama', McCloud." Fara's voice was tender and understanding, which really surprised the fox, who figured it would piss off the elder pilot. "I'm serious, Star," Fara continued. "I see a lot of male pilots in the academy… correction, have _seen_ back when I was an academy instructor… a great deal of male pilots who couldn't keep it in their pants until the day they were in a serious relationship with a serious female… and then in their senior year, three years later, find out they have a kid they've not seen. Usually they find out when the Child Support is suddenly garnished from their paychecks. I'm sorry she's done that but it happens more than you'd expect. I'll let her have her space; how's the search coming?"

"We're fighting a telepath; I think she's from my race," Star said, lowering his voice before adding, "She looks like my mother and she's not going to be an easy target for the rest of the team if she can read your minds."

"Sounds tricky," Fara mused, a pensive tone in her voice, already thinking of a plan in her head. After a moment of awkward silence, Fara simply said, "This person will be able to sniff out an ambush, I think what we need to do is set up high angles in the city and when someone sees her, we snipe her. If we're all covering a corner, facing inwards, one of us is statistically bound to see her through a scope eventually. Fichina National Guard has sealed off all exits outside of the dome while we work. Let's get this done before this place is smoldering in the dirt. At this rate, the fires will either burn out or consume this place soon."

"Agreed," Star replied in reference to her summation of the capital's future outcome. "We have to work with General Gray on this, step by step, so jot down your précis and pipe it through to him. I think it's going to come down to me and her fighting and she's way better than I am; far more experience and a far greater combat intellect."

Fara was all business with a hint of 'trustworthy friend' in her voice. "That doesn't sound promising. I'll get this synopsis uploaded to Bill and await further orders concerning the sniping trap."

"Star out," he replied, closing the channel. His eyes lifted from the personal communicator only for his heart to catch right in his throat. Krystal stood directly in front of him, having masked her mental appearance so that she was invisible to his mind. She knew that he relied heavily on his natural instinctual abilities of being able to detect the presence of another with his telepathy. Krystal veiled herself in a mental cloak which caused him to have his defenses down thereby allowing her to sneak up on him.

"Come back for another ass-whipping, huh?" McCloud said, putting on a front of testicular fortitude. "Well, let's go."

"Who is your father, _really_?" she asked, placing her paws upon her waist, jutting her hip outwards with her weight on her right heel.

"Fox McCloud," he replied. He could feel that she was probing his mind. It took a moment but her tight jaw began to loosen and her eyes dilated just slightly. "You still don't believe me?" He quipped, blinking at her. "You can sense everything I just said was true and then some… and you're in a …state of disbelief?"

"Is that _all_ you can sense? I'm in a state of disbelief?" she asked, leering at him. "You honestly sense nothing else, boy?"

"I'm half Cornerian," he protested defensively.

"You've quite the potential, you just haven't fully made use of your abilities," she said. "Cornerian revolutions aside, you're _sixteen_ in Cerinian years, child. You're still going through adolescence and you've not mastered your telepathic prowess yet."

"My mother used to…" Star found himself interrupted.

"…say the same thing; that you have potential," She replied, speaking almost directly overtop of him. "Your mother was… _is_ Krystal. Now I finally understand that I'm lost."

"I don't comprehend, I'm afraid." Star stepped back a little, putting distance between himself and her. She still radiated with hatred but somehow, having learned of his identity brought her into a state of flux; the confusion was gnawing at her stomach.

"_I'm_ Krystal," she said. "This is impossible. Fox and I _never had_ children, he's dead and you don't exist. It's quite possible that this is all in my mind and I've gone crazy from hurt. I could be sitting in an asylum this very moment, suddenly feeling calm – not from your presence but from a shot of tranquilizers. This is rather disconcerting; I _don't have children_."

McCloud balked, his jaw parting just slightly. "You're _not_ my mother. Her thought patterns are far different from your own. You're just a …_copycat_ with longer hair," Star retorted, grimacing at the woman.

"I'm Krystal. I was Fox McCloud's mate. I was born on Cerinia and the Oracle gave me _this_ staff," she replied, drawing out the extending pole that was sheathed upon her back. "Yours is identical which means that the gravity bomb Corneria used may have somehow caused me to jump into an alternative reality where things happened differently. You said StarFox defeated the Anglars? It didn't happen that way for me. StarWolf helped me to defeat them and we were all exonerated as heroes. I was hailed as a traitor and ostracized by ungrateful ingrates throughout Lylat. I left and became a bounty hunter and I was _damn_ good at it, too. Then something happened to me and I was forced to relive your father breaking up with me and it was rather painful. I came back and took his life."

Star could sense every detail with frightening accuracy. He could see into her mind, briefly looking at the world through her eyes. He saw his father dying beneath a pair of blue paws wrapped about his neck. The image caused him to cringe, shying back from the woman even further. Several muddy foot prints were between them now in the soot-covered street and the horrified expression on his face caused her to grin triumphantly.

She took a step forward but McCloud quickly lifted his right paw, defensively, as if to ward her off. "You're a twisted mistake; your pain should have never happened and you've lost touch with your humanity," Star sobbed softly, tears beginning to well up in his eyes after seeing the horrific atrocities through her mind's eye.

"I despise your name," she replied, taking another step towards him. "And I despise my own. You may call me _Kursed. _We're very much alike, you and I. We have the ability to heal _one another_ if you join me. We can use our inner hurt together, combine it, and drive Lylat into a grave. That girl had no right to hurt your heart; you had nothing but pure intentions of love for her and she rewarded you _how_? Tell me how Lylat has been _fair_ to you? It's brought you pain and misery; taken your parents, your mate, your grandfather's friend… It's a cruel place and needs to be _exterminated_."

Star was quiet for a moment as if contemplating. She tilted her head, looking at him for an instant but, strangely, she drew a blank expression on her maw, just waiting to see if she could read him properly. His mixed emotions and confusion made it difficult to determine his next thought. His head lifted with resolve in his eyes and he said, "Lylat is my home. You're in a world where you do not belong and you're not welcome here; I'll protect my home at all costs and you'll have to _kill_ me to finish your vendetta."

"You'll regret it. This is a world filled with pain and sorrow," she spat in anger. "And when I help you to realize that, you'll be a better man because of it. Good bye, Star McCloud. See you soon," she added at the end, flipping her staff upwards and catching him in the chin with it.

McCloud flipped backwards, head over heels, landing in the slimy residue on the ground. A trail of blood ran down from his lips, dribbling down over his neck, matting his fur. In the background, footsteps could be heard and the presence of Crimson could be felt entering the area. He sprinted across the intersection, towards the two foxes, drawing his blaster and firing a few shots at the woman who looked like Krystal, save for her longer hair and colder eyes.

She somersaulted with ease, evading the attack, simultaneous to Star executing a kippup. Gracefully landing upon one knee, Krystal's doppelganger twirled the staff above her head then brought it to bear at Crimson. "I have no room in my life for other men and neither does _Bliss_," she said, firing off a shot. The fireball roared towards Crimson at a high rate of speed. Without thinking, Star dove towards his friend, crisscrossing his paws one overtop the other. His arms locked solid and his palms collided with O'Donnell's lower back, throwing the lupine to the ground.

Kursed was enraged. "Idiot! Do you really think his sister finds him anything less than despicable?" she shouted, swinging her staff at Star's head. Before he could react, the end of her staff slammed across McCloud's face, knocking him clear from Crimson's body. He rolled a few times, now covered in the muddy soot, finally coming to a complete stop face down in the muck. The motionless pilot closed his mind, struggling to sit up. He pushed his paw into it, bending his elbow. His arm trembled, trying to force his body weight up so that he could pick himself up from the ground.

"You're certainly no son of mine," Krystal snapped. "You're as weak as every other man, you pathetic child."

Crimson stood up, brushing himself off. He lifted the rifle and took another shot but Krystal was ready, sensing his intentions. She powered her staff's shield and executed a quick spin, pivoting on her heel. The glowing blue rod connected with the rifle discharge, sending the shot up into the stratosphere, through the massive hole in the top of the dome. She then set her sights on O'Donnell, charging him head on.

"C'mon you psycho," Crimson chided her, dropping the gun and putting his paws outwards. As soon as she was close enough, he stomped his foot on the gun, causing it to fly upwards. He snatched it from midair and used it as a melee weapon, plunging one end into her gut. She cringed in pain but recovered faster than he had anticipated. Gripping the gun from his paws, she kicked her right leg up in the air, catching him in the jaw. The woman who called herself 'Kursed' dropped her staff into the muck then reached her free paw towards the other weapon, to gain more purchase on it.

O'Donnell's head snapped straight up from the kick; he elicted a deep groan. She then snatched the gun out of his paws, spun around to build up the momentum, then struck him as hard as she could with it. Crimson went spiraling to the ground, landing on his side with a hard grunt. She twirled the weapon in her paws then pointed it at the man, powering up the low-yield proton beam. A particle discharge began to collect at the barrel, growing bright at the tip of the muzzle.

Out of nowhere, and to her complete surprise, Star slammed into her at a perpendicular trajectory. She either couldn't sense his presence or she was too caught up in the sensation of killing; the blaster fired leaving a deep hole in the ground which reached straight into the soil and continued until it the beam reached the Fichinan mantle. He leaned over and glanced down into the hole then lifted his gaze back to his friend who was wrestling to keep Kursed on the ground.

Crimson suddenly shouted in pain, causing Star to flinch. The fox glanced up, seeing his friend reaching down to his stomach but there was no injury. O'Donnell on the other hand, was dabbing his paw against his gut then inspecting his fingertips only to see blood dripping from those furry digits. Star, however, couldn't see any blood, leaving him to wonder what was wrong with his friend. Crimson softly groaned, "How… in the … hell?" The alternative Krystal was giving him extraordinary pain in his stomach. He felt as though he'd just taken a shot from a highpower sniper rifle but the pain wasn't as intense as he thought it would be from a gunshot.

"It feels… really hot," Crimson said, obviously in shock. "But the rest of my body feels cold… like I'm surrounded by ice." His tone was weak, unable to push his voice out over the sensation of mind-numbing pain. "Who… shot me?"

"You're fine," Star cried, "It's some sort of trick, you're fine; you weren't shot!" He grabbed Krystal by her collar and lifted her up. "Fight ME, damn you!"

"No, we're one in the same," she said, shrugging out of his grip. "But he isn't worth our time. You know, I really think you would make a good match for Bliss," Krystal added, picking her staff back up from the street. She swung it hard, connecting with Star's hip, striking him down once more. She then kneed the pilot in his face, causing him to collapse to the ground. "I'm a trained bounty hunter and assassin. You're an adolescent boy experiencing Cerinian puberty. Stop embarrassing yourself."

She turned back to Crimson, lifted her staff and approached the male. Holding the jeweled end directly above his head, she took the staff in both paws, opening her stance. "Send Hell my regards," she said, giving him a moment to look up at the ornate staff that would be his undoing. Crimson's eyes dilated, looking up at the weapon directly above his head.

Krystal's upper body tensed in preparation of the lethal stabbing maneuver she was about to deliver when her jaw suddenly parted. Her eyes shrunk, those onyx pupils becoming pinholes. Her body froze for a moment as terrific physical pain consumed her. A slow sigh of relief passed over her quivering lips. A sensation of emotional content filled McCloud's mind and guilt immediately consumed him.

In his paws was his mother's staff. It extended from his touch, lancing through air and stopping in the woman's back. The beautiful tip of the jewel-encrusted spear reemerged from Krystal's stomach, tainted with a coating of her partially blackened blood. A single word danced over her tongue. "…Wonderful." To Star's complete confusion, she felt elated and complete.

"Thank you," she added as her body gave out beneath her. The vixen crumbled to her knees, the enlarged head of the staff becoming dislodged from her flesh. It dripped of her liquid essence. Drenched in her sanguine vitae, the staff was discarded, landing in the murky charcoal-colored liquid. Star, unable to believe what he'd just done, wrapped his arms around her, guiding her back.

He sank to his knees, drawing her body into his lap. Her paws went limp, releasing her own staff to the ground. She looked up at him with a frown. "I _do_ have regrets," she told him. Crimson sat up, watching in silence but appreciative of the fact that his friend would kill to save his life. Kursed continued, already beginning to slip into the abyss, telling her doppelganger's son, "I may not belong in this world but it brings me relief and peace to know that a relationship with Fox was possible in some form or another, in some way. If I played my cards right, I'd have held him in my arms instead of in my claws. I … I still love him," she whimpered softly, struggling to form her words.

Blood bubbled up from her burst stomach, filling her throat and causing her to gurgle. Death rattles could be heard in her labored breathing. "I'll finally be with him," she whispered. "If it's possible that I am here, then you should continue to have hope for your parents," she told him. "Thank you for releasing me from my torment, Star."

McCloud shook his head rapidly. "I don't _want_ to be Star. I don't want you to have died to learn your lesson of forgiveness. IF we hurry, a hospital may be able to save you."

"I don't have the willpower to continue," admitted the dark Krystal in a sour tone. "I welcome my death," she explained, adding, "I'm sorry that girl betrayed your heart and love but she didn't necessarily mean for there to be any ill will between you. What has happened simply happened and all you can do is forgive, accept, or move on."

"How can you allow yourself to be redeemed _now_, when you're dying?" Star queried, muttering in guilty abandon. "I don't want to be the man who murdered my mother."

"You didn't," Krystal said. "I never gave birth to you but another version of myself apparently did," she told him, her voice crackling with strain. "I finally see the error of my ways in realizing that a long loving life was possible with Fox. The only reason it didn't happen was because of _me_. I let myself be consumed with pain and caused this to occur. Don't become like me," She warned with her softly spoken voice.

A short moment of repose, then the cursed Krystal continued, hoping the end would simply hurry. "The pain is finally gone; I can't feel anything but cold and the second wind of my adrenaline," she said in a weak tone. "I love your father. I love Fox McCloud. I can only pray that he has forgiven me now that I've finally found it in myself to forgive _him_. I feel… wonderful," she said, her eyes beginning to glaze over with milky cataracts. "You've redeemed me, my dear Star."

His jaw tightened. "Star McCloud took a woman's life with his bare paws," said the pilot. "I don't want to be Star McCloud anymore. I can't… I can't be Star McCloud. I hate my name, my identity and… you understood me. Why did you have to try and kill my friend?"

"Sweet heart," she wheezed, "Change yourself. Evolve and adapt as I once did but do it to better yourself. Bleach… and dye… your fur. Reinvent yourself. I believe in you. By… by the way, your mother never got a chance to sit down and teach you about the family?"

Star realized that she was reading his mind and nodded in reply "She left behind a data chip on Cerinia but I've not had the heart to access it."

She offered a weak smile and said, "My father's name was Marcus. It's a strong name, he was a good man. And I see potential in you."

"My mother used to tell me I have potential," Star repeated, having told her that, earlier. "Marcus is a good name," he added, sobbing gently. "You don't have to die, you can let yourself be redeemed and live a better life. You're capable of that… you have… potential."

"There is nothing left for me, here," she replied. "I hope you find your family. I hope seeing your son will be everything you ever expected it to be… I don't know what its like but I _am_ proud that Cerinia is surviving through you."

"We should be able to move her," Crimson said, coming alongside of his friend. "There is a hospital not far from here but I don't know if it's staffed."

"Let me die," Krystal muttered. "It's taken too long as it is." She relaxed, waiting for death to take her from her body. It wasn't happening. "Please," she whispered. "Please, let me die. Too many times I've avoided death unfairly. I just want to let go. I don't have the will to go on, with this curse! Please make it end!" Her cry was weak in voice, crackling with nearly every spoken word.

"Krystal," he paused then corrected himself in a softer voice. "Kursed, we can get help for you," Star told her. "Please, let us help you. You don't _have_ to die."

"Let me die," she growled, narrowing her eyes and barring her teeth. "Kill me, goddess-damn you! Finish what you've started so I can return to my mate! Do it!"

McCloud flinched. "I can't … I can't kill you."

"Take my life!" she commanded. "Do it… or else…!" She balled her left fist up, causing Star to see an image of Crimson standing in the middle of the street with a hand-blaster pointed at his own head. "Do it or I'll make him die, I swear to you… I have the power to do this, now finish me or your friend dies."

In the distance, Star could vaguely hear Crimson protesting but the image of his friend wasn't speaking. McCloud's lower lip trembled in awe, shaking his head slowly. "No, let him go… please." Crimson's voice of reason was muffled by the powerful force of confusion and illusion. "Stop it!" Star shouted at her.

"Release me or he _will_ die," she hissed. "Only _you_ can reinvent yourself when I'm gone. You _despise_ Star McCloud. Finish me or else you'll become what you hate… a man who regrets every part of his past but has yet to do anything about his future. Release me to release your friend."

"No, this has to be a trick," Star said, struggling to see passed the illusion but she was still too strong, mentally. "Crimson wouldn't kill himself and you don't have the power to force him to do it."

"No," Krystal said, disheartened momentarily by his conviction and self control. "You're quite the virtuous man," she muttered, lifting her right paw. Within her fist was a blaster. She thumbed the power setting then grinned weakly. Crimson also saw the weapon being pointed at him and began to back away slowly. "Kill me or I'll take away Bliss' brother. _Do it_."

"Stop this, you're being irrational," Star pleaded. "Just drop the weapon and we'll take you to a hospital."

Appropriately named, Kursed cocked her head and gazed down the sights. She lined up the markers on the barrel with Crimson's forehead. "Make sure, when you kill me, you put the barrel against my _chest_ before pulling the trigger," she said.

"No! I'm not going to kill you!" Star said. "Now stop all of this stuff so we can get you help! You're all I have left of my mother and my race!"

"I gave you the chance to save his life," she said with a soft sigh. "But you've only brought his death." She squeezed the trigger and the blaster fired. The beam struck Crimson directly in his forehead, throwing the half-breed wolf back. He collapsed to the concrete, motionless. Krystal smiled to herself, thumbing the power setting back to its previous setting.

"NO!" Star barked, snatching the gun from her paw and putting it to her face. "WHY! How could you? Part of redemption is to give up your F'ed up past! You shot him, you twisted shell of a woman!" He mashed his thumb in on the power setting 'up key', ensuring the weapon was set at its fullest discharge setting.

"Let wrath become you, Star," she said, saying his name in a taunting way. "Finish me; I'm poison, _Star_. If you don't kill me, Violet and Fara will be next. Then your _son_. Rid the world of this poison and avenge your friend if you're a real man. Kill me _Star_. Do it!"

McCloud struggled with it. He wanted to take her life so very badly and his body was trembling with trepidation. She continued to chide him, taunting him in a tormenting fashion. "Your friend is dead, you've not acted on your instincts. Isn't that what Peppy used to say? Trust your instincts? You've betrayed them and, in turn, they failed you. Now your friend is dead, _Star_."

"STOP!" he screamed, putting the gun barrel against her chest and pulling the trigger. The blaster discharge erupted from the barrel, blasting through her heart and into the pavement beneath her body. Her eyes burst open wide and her body jolted hard from the shock. She went limp, draped across his lap and her eyes rolled back into her head. She died in his arms, killed by his paw.

He pushed her body away from himself and she sank to the ground with a sickening _thunk_. McCloud crawled over towards his best friend, drawing the man's head into his arms. The fox could feel the pounding of trepidation in his chest as he gazed over O'Donnell's motionless form. Every thunderous beat of his heart was like a drum thumping in his head. Star's ears laid flat and he had trouble seeing through the tears that streamed down his face. He couldn't see well enough to determine if her shot hit its mark accurately. He placed his paw upon Crimson's head but didn't feel blood…

"…Crimson?" Little did he know that Kursed set the blaster to 'stun' but fooled his eyes, once again, having placed the optical illusion within his mind… She tricked him into becoming angry, played on his rage and caused him to become a murderer. Star was devastated. As far as he was concerned, the spirit of "Star" McCloud died . Now his name was associated with blood. His name was now tarnished and he loathed it even _more_.

His paw slid down over O'Donnell's chest and relief flooded his body, feeling a pulse… He paused for a moment then simply whispered, "…Marcus McCloud." Now _there_ was a name that wasn't associated with death, pain or loss. Star took a moment to fidget with the communicator in his pocket, fighting inner frustration to get it out because of having Crimson's head on his lap. Finally free, he flipped the communicator open with his thumb and dialed Fara's headset frequency with his nose, keeping his other paw around his friend's head, protectively.

Fara was quick to answer. "Everything all right, McCloud?"

"Crimson is down; I need medical attention," he began, still bleeding from where his tongue was caught between his teeth when struck by her staff, earlier. He sighed, not so much in content, as a measure of relief that the entire ordeal was finally over. "And the target has been…" He stopped again. He didn't want to say 'destroyed' or 'dead' even though that was the truth. He settled on something else then told her, "…dispatched. Can you come and pick us up?"

"I'm on my way. Violet is returning to GreatFox to prepare the sickbay for Crimson," Fara replied over the channel. "Congratulations on taking down the target, Star! You've really done a fantastic job and I'm quite impressed. Just be prepared: The media will want to do a story on _the son of Fox McCloud defeating an evil killer_."

"Please, Fara, I can't stand that name," McCloud said. Especially now that it was soaked in blood as the last thing the dark Krystal said before he killed her. Now she could find closure, respite and the pain she felt was finally over but the fact remained: His name was now unbearable.

"Then change it, sweetheart," the fennec replied. "I'll be there in eight minutes or less; I'm going to be flying in through the gaping hole in the dome. Where are you guys at?"

McCloud sighed softly, glancing up through his blinding tears. The blurry shape of the News Building was still there, standing tall and solid. "Directly in front of the only remaining tower in this city. McCloud – out." The communication ended and the vulpine pilot collapsed in a fit of grief. The guilt was overwhelming and his heart ached… that wasn't just _any_ woman. It was a doppelganger of his _mother_. He crawled over to the sludge which filled a nearby pothole. He picked up the staff belonging to Kursed and drew both of them close to his chest. He brought them back towards his fallen friend and knelt over the hybrid.

There in the street, covered in soot, ashes and dirty rain, surrounded by a burning city, Star McCloud wept in anguish for what he'd accomplished. He would never be the same again… The pain of his fight with Violet held no candle to the pang he felt in his chest over taking another life in violence with her very real blood on his paws and on his soul. His shoulders heaved repeatedly from the intensity of his sobbing. The weeping fox cried so hard that he soon fainted from lack of oxygen. His body shut down, just needing a moment to flee into the depths of unconsciousness. He hid there in shame, lying silently across the cataleptic Crimson.

They lay inert, only half a meter from Krystal. Her once dynamic body was now in a static form of motionlessness. That blackened blood continued to puddle beneath her, spreading out on the ground. It blended in perfectly with the carbon colored soot-muck that collected on the street. Everything was different, now. A small part of McCloud died that day. The traumatic incident would live with him forever. He clung to the two dirty metal rods, one belonging to his mother and the other belonging to the body in the street. Both began to glow in his paws, forming a dual-layer protective field around both boys.

* * *

Next Chapter: 15 – "Marcus McCloud"

A/N: **Let me start by saying I've had, on average, 4 and a half hours of sleep every day for a solid week. Long, convoluted story; it's an emotional one that is best paralleled by the drama in this chapter**.

_These emotional few days have caused an emotional chapter, I guess. I'm kinda depressed; I went to visit the love of my life as a surprise birthday kinda thing… dozen roses, plush doggie, the whole shebang. It didn't go that well. Sorry the chapter became so depressing but you know, I think I was in the right frame of mind to write it because… oddly, I feel like I got it all off of my chest. Therapeutic, maybe? If she ever reads this chapter, let alone this story, she'll probably also feel betrayed. I hope, if she does read it, that she doesn't see it that way; the strong parallels are still only the words of a story. Sorry the chapter was so long; I gave you people over 16 thousand words to read today. I hope you've all enjoyed it. There are still a dozen plot twists left for me to write. I'm almost afraid to ask if people have changed their opinion over Fara 'n Violet… _

_Also, Star _**hates**_ his name. Don't feel alarmed when he changes it. How else would I tie it into Canon properly?_

_Anyway, I feel a lot better now that I've written this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it and I'm sorry it drones on for 28-30 pages. _

-Kit


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter -15-

**There was a dizzying cacophony of alarms** mixed with the disorienting swirl of blue sky and interstate patterns, blurred together, far below. It seemed to fade into reality only for unconsciousness to swallow the tod whole, once more. There was a harsh shift and Star's eyes fluttered open again, seeing the world outside of the cockpit in all of its snow-covered glory. Someone's voice could be heard grousing; it sounded like Crimson.

"Get off my case," muttered O'Donnell. The radio buzzed with a feminine-toned reply, but Star couldn't make out the words and he was quite uncomfortable from the poor seating arrangements. He was in a fetal position behind the cockpit seat, his body ached and his head hurt so badly that it prohibited his concentration. The darkness was encroached upon him once more, drawing the Reynard back into its clutches…

A jolt brought McCloud back to the world of the living, once more. He heard female voices again but this time the voices were present in his mind… or were they? "No, I'm not going to argue with you, Fennec. I wasn't hiding _anything_ from him. I was trying to make this reconciliation easier for _every_one," Someone said.

"I'm not trying to tell you how to mother your son," Replied the other woman firmly but with an understanding sort of endearment in her voice. "But keeping the father from the baby can have a dramatic psychological effect and furthermore," The voice faded. Star no longer felt bunched up. His body ached but some part of him realized that he was now flat on his back somewhere. The oblivion returned, blanketing out all noise and light yet again.

Somewhere, on some level of inner consciousness, he felt something soothing against his right paw. Someone was rubbing their thumb across his knuckles gently. Their proximity was comforting and the feminine presence was a balm to his spirit. There was a short pause then that presence changed from feminine to masculine. What _seemed_ like only a few moments later, Star's ears flickered, hearing the words, "Three days? Seventy-two hours is a _long_ time to go without actual food. He's already pulled the IV out, _two times_. No, Violet is upset. She'll be back eventually but what _I_ want to know is why that woman didn't tell Star the truth about having a kid…" The masculine voice belonged to Crimson and it sounded as though he was having a telephone conversation.

"So how's your mother? Yeah," the voice continued. "Her life must be tough being an astrophysicist. But she's made some remarkable strides." A short pause, then, "…No, I'm still on duty to watch Star. He's comatose but he'll be fine; he's just been through a lot this week, starting with our first real mission and ending with what the doctor calls "low level paroxysms. They're giving him a CAT scan tomorrow morning. …Well I'm sure he feels guilty as can be about Slippy Toad missing in action with his parents. …OH? Beltino really? The poor old bastard, he's so freakin' old. How long have you been at his side in Slippy's absence? Damn, a week is a long freakin' time." The voice began to fade from McCloud's ears until silence returned.

Star found himself face down on the ground when his eyes finally opened. All around his body was darkness. It was all consuming but there, in the center of it all, was light. It wasn't like a donut but more like a hollow sort of auditorium with a dim beam of illumination resting on the center stage. In the very middle, lying at the core was Star McCloud, son of Fox and Krystal. He was nude, with his muzzle pressed to the ground, coiling that bushy rusty-and-blue-mixed tail around his legs to keep them warm.

"Star McCloud," the name rang out, booming with authority. Lifting his face, those feathery azure tresses fell away from the eyes of the young pilot. Those jaded orbs gazed upwards, filled with a sullen sort of grief that only seemed to be enunciated by the framing blue locks of headfur that fell to border his lithe visage. A chalky cobalt star was imprinted over one eye on his face; his teeth glistened softly in the light, like the season's first snowfall. Star McCloud's jaw slowly parted until words erupted from his throat.

"Who are you?" It's all he could ask. He had no idea what was going on. All he could remember was fainting on Fichina.

The man's voice was calm but powerful. His regal stature was almost comforting in a sense. "I am Marcus of the Cardinal Sun, my boy. I'm your Maternal Grandfather." He was dressed in a very plain black uniform. There was a collar, much like one that a priest might wear, but without the white strip at his throat. Simple buttons ran down, over his chest and elegant shoes finished the outfit. "I am a Senator for the planet Cerinia and a Justicar for my race."

McCloud's soft sea-green oculars locked upon the hazel hues of his grandfather in complete disbelief. "Where is my mother?" He simply asked, before his mind could really register anything else.

The gentleman slowly shook his head apologetically. "She is not among our kind, here in the heavens of afterlife," Said Marcus. "The woman who passed at your paw has returned to the Paradox from whence she came. While scant, you managed to provide her soul with the solace that no other could bestow. I sense that she was eternally grateful during those last moments of her life."

"I murdered a woman," McCloud said, the fur beginning to bristle up on his neck. His tail fizzled up, becoming fluffy and his paws drew into tight fists. "She was redeemed upon death but I wasn't strong enough to redeem her _without_ a weapon."

"You're stronger than you realize," Marcus replied in a calming tone. His voice was smooth like whiskey poured from the finest oak barrels; it was intense and yet tender like a father should be. "Within your blood, my lineage and my race survive, Star. It continues to grow as you raise a family, as you are fruitful and continue to multiply. While it may dilute the Cerinian bloodline by staying and mating in Lylat, you're not _completely_ alone in this universe. A handful of second generation Cerinia survivors exist… But our line is being hunted."

"Hunted?" Star just gawked at him. "Are you serious?"

Marcus tilted his head, lifting his chin just slightly. "Cerinia had enemies of its own long before Andross Oikonny appeared," Said the man. Like Krystal, his fur was bathed in sapphire hues with royal navy hair and a strong physical build. It was obvious that he came from good stock and it helped to explain why Krystal was so very beautiful. Star felt like he knew this man already and that was awkward in its own right.

A blustery windswept gale filled the area. The tempestuous force caused Star to squint. He got to his knees then stood up, trying to cover his nudity but the deafening crack of thunder and piercingly bright flash of lightning served to draw his attention to the impending land of foreboding in the distance. "Is that some sort of… metaphor?" McCloud asked.

"Indeed it is," Replied Marcus. "I'm afraid things may indeed grow more difficult for you from here on out; that squall represents your future. It's going to be a difficult road ahead of you, my dear Grandson. Lylat is safe from these hunters… at least for now, but that does _not_ mean that Lylat is safe, in general. Regarding the hunters, however, you may never meet them …but your children do face that very realistic possibility. The Oracle expects great things from you but the path to success is riddled with many obstacles."

"I know the Oracle supposedly gave me the name "Star" but I dislike it," McCloud told him. "Is _your_ name associated with blood?"

"Only the blood of my death at the collapse of my race," Replied the man. "My battles were political. I never had the fire your mother had… look," He said, pointing back at the storm. As the obsidian fog began to clear, Star could see a desecrated city; the capital of Cerinia was crumbling in the distance. The senate building was engulfed in flames and the sky brightened from its original shade of onyx to a glossy color of amber… a reflection of the burning planet's surface, combined with the incredibly bright star at the center of their system, which was expanding rapidly to a Red Giant. "Do you know what you're seeing?"

"The end of Cerinia…" Star cogitated aloud in a softly spoken whisper. The burning world reflected against his eyes; the image of fires danced within his glassy green gaze. He remembered this from Fichina and yet this was a metaphorical representation portrayed to his mind concerning an incident which happened long before his birth. "Has my mother ever seen this image?"

"It's just as much Cerinia as it could be Corneria… and to answer your question: No," Marcus replied. "And she never will. I never had a son, you know. I wish I could have met you in life so that I could have gotten to know you better. I'm sorry we had to meet like this and I'm sorry that you are here to witness the last thing _I_ saw before I died. And to answer the question you've yet to ask: yes, I would be honored for you to take the name 'Marcus'."

"Are you sure?" McCloud queried with a weary worded tone. "I suppose I just don't want a name that's drenched in blood even though I'm still following in the paw-prints of my father and his father. You don't feel that me taking your name will sully and defile it?" Star could already sense the answer from the full-blooded telepath that stood before him.

The world in the distance grew dark again like the changing of a scenery prop on a stage. The sensation of a spotlight returned to that centralized plane, leaving the two of them alone. "Where are we?" McCloud asked.

"Where you stand," Said the gentleman, "Is all that remains of our world, Cerinia." He lifted his paw, turning his palm up. "And _this_ is _physically_ all that remains of our world," He explained, holding a mere green stone. "Its twin remains in your mother's diadem. The jewel encrusted circlet was fashioned from stones mined on our planet and so she carries Cerinia with her wherever she goes. You, however, do not have a tiara but you _do_ possess her necklace, staff and golden gauntlets."

"What should I do with this?" Star asked, taking the stone out of the man's paw and holding the jewel up to inspect it. Its translucent state allowed for just enough light to pass through that it was glowing in his paw without being able to see directly through it. The gemstone was too cloudy to be an emerald and too dense to be a piece of peridot. Marcus simply smiled. Before Star could learn what to do with the Jewel in his paw, the setting began to rapidly change, disappearing in a vortex of swirling light and darkness.

Voices faded into existence, thundering in his mind. "The laser scalpel on the table," Said one. "Forceps, rollers," Another one replied almost in unison to the first. "I hope my insurance covers this," Another thought, simultaneous to, "I wonder if they take credits; I bet it's expensive." Voice after voice, many clashing one over the other; Star sat up suddenly, looking around. He _wasn't_ in the sickbay on GreatFox. No, he was in a Cornerian hospital in the middle of the afternoon.

He glanced around the area one more time before sliding out of bed. Unlike the reverie he just experienced, he was fully dressed in a hospital issued shirt that came to his knees. His pants and shoes were on a chair next to the bed and a clean shirt was hanging on a hook on the other side of the hospice mattress, by the door. McCloud glanced back at the hospital cot and frowned, seeing a bedpan in place. A moue of disgust marred his face, scrunching his brows and furrowing his furry facial features.

Suddenly a pain seized his chest and his paws clinched tightly. His body undulated wildly and the young fox collapsed to the ground as wave after wave of intensely staggering hurt gripped him. It took a few minutes but after the waves died down to ripples, Star struggled to remove his body from the ground, panting hard. His voice was hoarse and his joints were numb from the short-lived convulsion.

He moved to his hands and knees, sitting up a bit, dazed and confused. The shock and adrenaline began to taper off, leaving him to simply pant. "What the hell was that all about?" he exclaimed, sounding more akin to a whimper.

A gentleman's voice was heard from behind, startling the fox who was unable to concentrate enough to sense who was coming or going. The man cleared his throat before speaking, then plainly told McCloud, "Cerebral Optic Overload. Your mind's eye is playing havoc on your brain, Sir." He was a badger with an unusually calm demeanor.

McCloud glanced over his shoulder from his position on the floor, seeing a man who wasn't really a doctor at all. His business blazer suggested he might have been a lawyer or something. The man had a cane in his left paw, ambling smoothly across the floor with its aid. A navy blue tie was worn by the man, darker in shade than Star's headfur or the ascot which McCloud kept in his pocket from his childhood flight suit. He was suddenly reminded of the color of his Grandfather's hair and for some reason the blue tie helped him trust this man, as if there were some sort of connection. Matching opal cufflinks completed the attire, giving the gentleman a dazzlingly handsome appearance.

"It is apposite to conclude that stress, mental fatigue and trauma caused the seizure," Said the man. "I won't lie to you; I'm _not_ going to tell you my name and your mental status will make it difficult for you to garnish such knowledge from my thoughts. At any rate, I'm here to teach you, young man."

"Who in the hell are you? You're not from Lylat," McCloud muttered. The gentleman shrugged slightly, rolling his shoulders forward just a bit. His left paw came up to his right and the two crisscrossed over the handle of his cane. Star continued, "Are you from Cerinia?"

The badger raised an eyebrow. "Can you sense that I have telepathy? That should be the easiest thing for you to do," The man countered with a slow shake of his head. He slid his paws forward so that his right wrist was now resting on his cane. His left paw came about, twisting the ring on his middle finger slowly between his thumb and the claw of his forefinger. He turned it wantonly, looking straight at the floor to avoid direct eye contact with the Cerinian child. "I thought not," He finally said in reply to McCloud's silence. "I'm part of… well, it doesn't really matter. Let's just say I monitor paranormal and clairvoyant occurrences in this region of the galaxy. We watched your mother, we've watched you and now we're watching you first born son."

"Where the hell is he?" Star snapped, quickly getting to his feet. "You _knew_ I had a son? For how long; is he all right?"

The gentleman lifted his cane, placing the tip against Star's snout. Star blinked and once the man held the boy's attention, the cane was lowered and he began to speak, answering the fox's question. "He's fine; it's not normally common place for us to intervene. However, you had a seizure and that triggered a mild stroke. The bleeding in your brain can be very hard on your frontal lobe and I'm here to ensure that you remain stable, Mister McCloud. After all, you have work to do in the road ahead."

"I feel fine," McCloud muttered. He turned away from the man and quickly set his gaze on a sign on the far wall. He glanced at the words then turned back to the man. "I can still read. I'm coherent and I can speak. I can still hear voices and I feel fine… just tired."

"As I said… It was mild," The man repeated calmly. "We'll speak again but remember: your mental status is in question because of compounded traumatic incidents. Keep it to yourself that we spoke. I know it's difficult to understand why right now but if you keep this to yourself, I'll be able to help you later but first, you need to leave this hospital quickly. Head East; your son lives on West View Terrace with Katherine M. Lombardi, the widow of Falco Lombardi."

"Yeah," McCloud mused softly, adding, "I know who Katt Monroe-Lombardi is. She's Violet's mother. What's the house number?" He asked the question while snatching his pants and shoes from besides the bed. Tucking them beneath his arm, he turned around then walked passed the gentleman, heading across the hospital room.

"You'll find it," The man replied.

"Great," replied Star in a flat tone. "And she's _not_ Falco's widow. No one died," Said the pilot, heading for the door.

"Can you sense their existence?" The man asked, cocking a brow.

"No," McCloud said, glancing over his shoulder as he was leaving the room. "But my gut and my faith give me hope. I still believe in the Goddess, y'know." He took a shirt off the hanger by the door then balled it up beneath his arm with his pants and shoes. "Go back to your voyeurism. I won't need help from here on out." With that said, Star left the room in haste.

McCloud changed in a publicbathroom then left the hospital, leaving the paper-like shirt back in a toilet stall. Outside, he flagged down a taxi and told the driver, "Take me downtown; I have an audience with General William Gray."

x- x- LINETOOLstillDOESNTworkTODAY -x -x

**Crimson O'Donnell found himself pacing** on the bridge of GreatFox. His paws were tightly balled into fists and his ears were laid back, flat. The consistency of his anger easily caught the attention of ROB who decided to ascertain to the reasoning behind the pilot's behavior.

"Are you worried about Mr. McCloud, Crimson?" Rob's question was simple and polite.

"Partially," replied Red. "But I'm pissed off about Bliss showing up with 'Wolf-pack'. She was apparently working with that crazy blue-furred lady on Fichina. My sister has a lot of damn nerve," Said the wolf, seething in anger. The scowl painted on his face was unbecoming, his stark red hair was slicked back and he was doing his best not to break down. "Yes, I'm worried about Star. He's more important than just a best friend. It's complicated but there is a lot going on. He finds out he has a kid, kills a woman who resembles his mother and this is all within a few days of uprooting himself from where he lived. His family and Grandfather's best friend is dead and now he has a convulsion."

"We at least know that he is safe," Rob countered in a monotone voice. "Please remain calm; he is in good paws."

"The other part of me wants to blow up on Violet right now," Crimson added. "But I'm sure she feels like crap," Red said with a sigh, shaking his head slowly and loosening his fists. "Fara sat with him the first two or three days, I took the next shift and spent half of that time on the phone with Lucy Hare's daughter. She tells me that Beltino Toad is on his deathbed from his age. It's amazing that he's held out _this_ long."

Rob's annoying rebuttal was simple logic and basic facts. Crimson was quickly growing tired of the poor dialogue. "Beltino Toad was only a few years younger than Peppy Hare."

"Really? You think?" Crimson's sarcastic attitude garnished no real response from Rob. The machine simply returned to running diagnostics on the ship, making a list of things that need to be accomplished throughout the rest of the week.

"This is stupid; I'm just sitting on my ass," O'Donnell muttered, adding, "If Star recovers and we get a new mission or something like that, call me. I'm going to see if I can't track down my egotistical 'other half'. Bliss and I have some catching up to do. I'm going to give Fara a heads up on the way out." He turned for the door and walked off the bridge…

x- x- LINETOOLstillDOESNTworkTODAY -x -x

**The streets of Corneria** were a comfortable place in some respects. The spanning city was laced with yawning stretches of interstate and incredibly beautiful buildings boasting advanced and decedent architecture. Its sheer opulence was testament to the peace and prosperity of its population. 'Harmony' was synonymous with such a city as it ran like a well maintained clock.

With Corneria and its capital city in such a state of peace, it was no wonder that everyone suddenly felt uptight after the Defense Headquarters was hit with a terrorist attack. Upgraded security had the public feeling uneasy and with an elevated alert status, Corneria was readying its police and military forces.

It was no secret that Venom was going through a civil war and that their Capital was decimated. Not only was Shray-Lek destroyed, but three other Venom cities were now smoldering piles of debris as well. Rumors were flying that the Cornerian Intelligence Community believed the Venom Civil War was already at an end. Now speculation was beginning in the face of growing concerns over Venom's status. It was plain history for everyone to know that Venom had gone to war with Corneria three times in the past. The worry was whether or not it would happen again.

It was school-taught history to know that StarFox defeated Venom in the Lylat Wars. The second occurrence was when Corneria went back to war with Venom at the beginning of the Aparoid invasion. And finally, the third happenstance came to pass when StarFox had intervened once more when the Anglars attacked. Now the people of the planet Corneria were worried that Venom would strike again under the returning Emperor Andrew Oikonny. Venom had been quiet in the last 18 hours, leaving people to worry that Venom was up to no good.

From a window on the twenty-third floor of the Military Defense Headquarters, Star McCloud watched the city in silence. Denizens were coming and going, completing their menial tasks. The general feeling in the area was one of moderate worry. Any reasonable man or woman knew that they couldn't ignore their daily lives but everyone felt as though they had their guard up, just incase.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Came a masculine voice from behind. McCloud's eyes shifted only slightly, looking now to the reflection in the window, inches from his face. A cougar with gray speckles around his muzzle was standing directly behind the fox. He looked young, despite the gray coloration on his snout, leaving one to assume one of the man's parents had gray markings in their genes.

"It's really no problem," Star replied, turning about to face the man. "So, General Gray will see me now, hmm? Lead the way, Sir." McCloud lifted his paw, making a forward swishing motion to gesture haste.

The feline nodded then pivoted on his right heel, slapping his shoes together. Without another word, he simply began to march. '_This is why I'm not in the military,_' thought Star to himself, watching the uniformed officer with a furrowed brow. He followed the 'too proper' marching cougar out of the observation room and down the hallway. They continued through two armed security checkpoints which marked the beginning and end of a damaged hallway section.

Walls were scorched and once-beautiful doors made of mahogany were now warped and gnarled from the blast that happened in the next hallway over just a week prior. It only seemed like a day or two ago; Star was still reeling from finding out about today's date. He'd been unconscious for days on end which really only felt like a short nap with a few strange dreams. Yellow caution tape was crisscrossed over some of the office doors they passed, leaving Star to wonder if there was a gaping hole on the other side of that drywall panel.

At the far end of the hallway, they made a right turn, coming to a doorway marked with adhesive strips but barren of a name plate. The cougar opened the door then stepped back, saluting to Star who simply lifted his middle and forefinger to his temple in casual reply. The door was shut behind the fox who simply stood at the head of the room for a moment, just to take in its gaudy, cliché design.

"This is _seriously_ your office?" It's all Star could ask. The room was a conventional square shape with a massive window at the far end. To the immediate left and right, potted plants reached to the ceiling with random paintings and bookshelves on the side walls as decoration. A fancy oriental rug filled the floor which was constructed of beautiful hardwood tiles. At the very end, in front of the window, there was a gorgeous wooden desk with a telephone and laptop.

The desk had the military seal emblazoned on the front and beyond the wooden structure, all Star could see was the backrest of a chair; Bill Gray facing towards the window. A ceiling fan gently hummed causing the plants on either side of Star McCloud to sway ever so slightly. The only thing missing from this room was a giant tapestry on the wall to the immediate left and right of the door.

Bill's voice came from the other side of the Chair's backrest which was _still_ presented towards the fox. "I heard you were in the hospital."

"Yeah," McCloud muttered. "The lady hit me in the head with a staff; it was probably just a concussion or something."

"You don't _know_?" Bill turned about in the fancy cushioned chair. The illumination from the window behind him caused his body to appear as a silhouette so that McCloud couldn't see him, which amused the young pilot to no end.

"Damn, Bill," Star chuckled, "You look like a super secret cliché leader on a B-rated movie. Close the curtains and turn on your ceiling lights …or put some recessed lighting above your desk, dude. And no, I don't '_know_'. But I can sense you're about to tell me."

"You had a stroke," Bill said in a serious tone. "You're only twenty-two years old, Star. You didn't have a concussion, young man. You went into a coma for several days and your team was told that you may not wake up ever again. I'm sure they're elated to know that you're awake after only the 4th day."

McCloud folded his arms across his chest and simply said, "No one knows; I just left." He shrugged then told the General, "I'd be in observation for another week or longer if I stuck around. Something told me that I shouldn't be there, so I left."

"You're really being irrational," Gray said, standing up from his cushy chair and approaching his ex-roommate. "You look like hell," He added upon closer inspection. The greyhound's eyes lifted then dropped, taking in every detail. "How's your head?"

"It'll be much better when I get over to West View Terrace. I have to pay a visit to Katt Mon… err, Katt _Lombardi_. It's a long convoluted story and I don't really have time to get into it but I have to stop in the shopping district on the way over. For all that to happen, I need money."

"Open an account for the team," Gray simply said. "Don't walk around with pockets full of shells, Star."

"I hate that damn name," McCloud grumbled. "I'm going to take it and pay for a legal name change. I'm going with Marcus. Believe me, I don't _care_ if you hate it; there's simply no choice in the matter, Bill. So, where's our fluff?"

Bill turned away, walking back to his desk. "That lady on the Fichina News… She _was not_ your mother." He opened a drawer on the fancy desk and took out a yellow transparent card. The plastic piece looked a little like a chip for a digital camera but it was longer and wider yet easily just as thin. "Your mother was one of the best aviators and easily fit in with elite pilots like StarFox. In fact, I think Slippy only stayed on the team because he was your dad's best friend but the fact remains… Krystal had talent as a fighter pilot. She was also one hell of a smack-talker in the cockpit."

"_MY_ mother talked smack to her enemies?" McCloud asked, looking surprised. He met Bill halfway back across the office, taking the card out of the older man's paw. "Are you _sure_ you flew with my mother?"

"Trust me," Bill replied with a firm nod, handing over the plastic chip. "When she flew, she always made sure to let the enemies know who they were dealing with; she got excited in the heat of battle and she was a damn good pilot."

Star pushed the yellow chip into his pocket and tilted his head slowly to the left. "Why're you telling me this, anyhow?"

"Because I knew your mother. I flew with her longer than you might think," Bill said. "I feel guilty for not telling you before. I don't know why I didn't; it just never really came up. I half-thought you already knew because you're telepathic."

"I'm half Cornerian," Star muttered under his breath. He shook his head then said, "It's not like I can _always_ hear every single word you think to yourself. Why does everyone think that I'm some sort of fortune telling mind reader? I think I get better as I get older but right now, I only hear spoken voices in my mind on rare occasions. Yeah, it happens but not every day with every person."

"All right, I'm sorry; I didn't know. And…" Bill turned away, beginning to retreat back towards his desk. "I did court her for a few short months," He finally admitted in a soft voice.

McCloud nearly cringed but decided to play it off as a shrug. "I don't really care. You're not my dad, so some minor dating and whatever happened on those nights you guys drank together… is _not_ my business."

"Well," Bill said, looking for a way to reply. He shook his head slowly and started with, "We never had sex." Immediately, Star felt at ease but he still shrugged on the outside. "We never fell in love," Bill continued, adding, "We saw a few movies together and we flew together but it was just casual dating and once in a great while, a 'kiss goodnight' sort of thing, after dinner. We didn't live together or anything like that."

"I'm happy for ya," Star said with an airy chuckle. He was putting on quite the façade, looking completely unfazed. "It's totally fine. I mean, I'm glad you're trying to be honest with me but you're really trying to get guilt off your chest that you felt concerning my father because you dated his vixen. But really, Bill… It's not my business."

Bill cracked a slight smile. "All right, just making sure you weren't going to hold it against me; we're still friends after all."

"As long as you keep sending me and the team business, we're going to be _great_ friends," Star replied, causing Bill's smile to broaden somewhat. "Look, I've got to get out to East Town. I'm changing my name today and I have a lot of stuff on my agenda. You know my number… and listen; this is just between us, all right?"

"I'm all ears," Bill said, sitting down into his chair again. "What's on your mind?"

Star walked to the door, reached for the handle then glanced over his shoulder and said. "It's Goddess-damned Violet… She has a son and never told me. Yeah, it's mine but don't you dare tell anyone."

"I won't," Bill returned. Star opened the door and stepped through and Bill watched in silence.

"I mean it. I don't want that to get out," Star said, beginning to pull the door shut behind himself. "See ya." The door clicked and the room returned to complete silence. Bill drew in a long slow breath then sighed.

x- x- LINETOOLstillDOESNTworkTODAY -x -x

**McCloud glanced down at the **Photo ID card in his paw. It was fresh off the printer and read "Marcus McCloud". Slung loose from the wrist of his other paw was a shopping bag that held an infant-safe plush Arwing from the toy store. Also in the bag, he had two outfits for one year olds, based on age in months. Just incase, he bought one for 12-14 months and one for 16-18 months. He stopped on the sidewalk at the top of West View Terrace and frowned thoughtfully.

"If this goes poorly, I'll never forgive myself," The pilot said softly.

It didn't take long to reach his destination --maybe forty minutes-- and now that he was here, he glanced back towards the metropolis from which he came. The street, West View Terrace, lived up to its name, facing the city so that the entire view of the Capital could be seen, sprawling westward.

The pilot made his way up the walkway and knocked on the door with his right paw. A pause… Young McCloud was nervous and trying to push all the things that have gone wrong from his mind. His heart was pounding and his mouth felt dry. He half-cursed himself for not picking up a nice suit on the way but he didn't want to spend too much of the team's first paycheck.

The door opened almost immediately and he found himself face to face with Katt, holding a removable car seat carriage. A blue blanket obscured the face of a baby within the carriage but it was still enough to cause McCloud's heart to jump into his throat. Katt wore a wedding band on her left paw and a casual, slightly wrinkled t-shirt that read, "_Some Grandma's get all the men!_"

The feline was in surprisingly excellent physical shape considering her age was approximately fifty years old. Her slender form screamed "mid-30's" at most. Had her t-shirt not given her away, McCloud would only have known by her thought patterns that she was the _grandmother_ of his son. The pilot was nervous because of the change in her demeanor as soon as she laid eyes upon him. He tried to play it off with some measure of aplomb in his words but struggled to act with tact due to the awkwardness of this situation.

He thought it best to start with the _pre-marriage-to-Violet_ card. "Hey, mom. Long time no see," He said. Katt's eyes narrowed, causing his heart to drop. Violet was right, Katt _didn't_ like him. "A funny thing, uh; your daughter and I were having a discussion about reconciling our relationship and…" He trailed off, not succeeding in the dignity or composure he intended for.

"I speak to her every day," Katt said softly, trying to remain pleasant. "So yes, I know you were making out with another woman when she showed up. What're you doing here?"

"I came to see Falco." Marcus McCloud got right to the point and held up the shopping bag. "I brought some things…"

"Get the door," Katt said, nodding to the hover-car in her driveway. Marcus nodded quickly, waiting for her to come outside before pulling the door shut to her house. She crossed the grass but McCloud stayed on the stone walk, going over to the driveway. He opened the car door for them and Katt lifted the carriage, setting it down in a base that was strapped into the car already. She took the bag off of Marcus' left wrist then said, "Thank you, Tiger." She was being civil but he could sense that she simply didn't want to be ugly to the baby's father.

"Can… can I see him?" Asked McCloud. "I see you're going somewhere; I mean, I want to hold him but I know you're probably in a hurry," He said this, sensing that she was, indeed, already in a hurry. "But can I at least see him?" Katt didn't yet answer him. He could vaguely hear her thoughts that she was milling the question over in her head. Meanwhile, she got into the driver seat and put the hover-car into reverse. She backed out of the driveway then stopped in the middle of the road. McCloud approached the car, coming to stand directly in front of the driver's side window, trying to be respectful.

She put the window down and said, "Star…" Katt sighed softly, shaking her head slowly. "You must realize that I don't condone of this relationship because it was done so… assed-backwards. You've not paid Violet child support…ever. Technically, you don't have the _right_ to see him."

"Please," McCloud said, trying to stay delicate. He didn't want to correct her or go into the semantics about his new name change and so he just frowned. His anger and hurt were welling up in his chest but his mind was filled with confusion and apprehension concerning this woman. All he wanted was to see what his son looks like, even a picture would be better than nothing at this point.

He knelt down besides the car, placing his paws on the door, peering in at the backseat. The carriage faced backwards, not even giving him a partial view of the child. "Is there anything I can do for him? Does he need clothes or can I come back by and see him?" Marcus drew sixty credits from the remaining one hundred that he kept in his pocket. The rest of the money was put into an account for the Team, having stopped at a bank while in town.

Katt reluctantly accepted the credits, putting them in the cup holder of the vehicle's center console. "You'll have to talk to Violet about this. Coming here wasn't the best way to go about it because circumventing her is disrespecting us both." She gave Marcus the same capricious run around that Violet gave him back on Fichina.

A vehicle driving be in the opposite lane honked the horn at McCloud who was kneeling in the center, between the lanes, in order to talk to Katt. "This isn't the best neighborhood to sit in traffic," Katt said. "You'll create a backup; get out of the road."

"I just wanted to see his face one time," Marcus pleaded softly. "… You know, see what his eyes looked like, then I'll leave you alone."

Another car horn blasted, even though Marcus was nowhere near being out far enough to block _oncoming_ traffic. McCloud narrowed his eyes then glanced over his shoulder at the passing vehicle which came to an immediate stop shortly after passing by… a young man leaned out the window, looking back to lock eyes with the vulpine pilot. Their gaze locks and the rottweiler narrowed his own eyes then said, "Yeah; c'mon, you punk. Say something smart… do it. Give me a reason to get out of this truck."

Katt's thoughts betrayed her intentions… McCloud sensed that she was about to relent and let him have just one peek but now people were screaming in the middle of the road and she just didn't feel like being there at the moment. She finally said, "I don't want to be late for his appointment, he's sick from teething. He has a low-grade fever and I was just leaving. Try another day." Marcus, on the other hand, was still looking over his shoulder at the guy who apparently just wanted to start trouble. Katt shook her head, seeing that McCloud was preoccupied with something down the street, so she put the vehicle into forward gear and began to pull away. She simply left the fox kneeling there in the middle of West View Terrace, stupefied and frustrated.

He quickly stood up, turning back to the departing car that belonged to Katt, then looked back over his shoulder at the jerk who was sitting in the middle of the road in a truck. "That's right, get the hell out of the road, you dumb bitch!" The rowdy young canine said. "What're you looking at me like that for? You want me to get out and beat your ass? C'mon, say something smart and see what happens!"

The fighter pilot glanced back over his other shoulder, watching the departing hover-car with his son in the back. He balled up his paws, turning a sharp glare back at the other man in the truck. "Leave," he simply said. He was aggravated beyond belief now because this man partially caused Katt to leave by trying to instigate a confrontation. Now that she left, Marcus wouldn't be able to see his child; he came all this way for _nothing_. …And it was all because of some rottweiler, looking to fight somebody. She was about to relent when this guy started screaming which caused her to change her mind. As a telepath, he knew that she was on the verge of letting him take one look and now… Now _nothing_.

He took his first step towards the truck and already the man was climbing out of the driver's seat, looking to scrap. "All I wanted was to see my son for _five_ _seconds_," The pilot growled softly, the fur bristling on the nape of his neck. McCloud's tail fluffed up and the canine climbing out of the truck simply grinned, shutting the door behind himself.

"Yeah? Say something smart, punk," the guy repeated. "See how quickly I beat your ass." Marcus could sense that the man had just been in a fist fight with someone who flirted with his girlfriend and so the guy was hopped up on adrenaline, looking to fight more. McCloud couldn't understand the guy's intentions. He was confused as to why anyone would want to antagonize another person to actually get INTO a fight but the fact remained: This guy scared off Katt, she left and now he couldn't see his kid.

The rottweiler wasn't shy to get into the smaller framed fox's face. "I don't like the way you're looking at me, you fairy. I'm going to F' your ass up," The man continued. Marcus paused, sensing something else. He glanced back over his shoulder at the departing Katt Monroe who stopped at the end of the street. Apparently, she'd turned her car back around, having changed her mind. As soon as McCloud looked away from the black and brown furred animal, the man balled his fists up and punched the fox in his face. "You look at me when I'm talking to you!" The man shouted, using his other paw to snatch the pilot by his neck. McCloud found himself slammed up against the crazy man's truck.

His combat instincts kicked in and he went for his blaster, drawing the weapon off of his belt. He put the barrel up against the rottweiler's right eye, causing the entire fight to stop before it even really got started. Katt's sharp eyes caught sight of the blaster and the situation; McCloud forcing the dog up against his truck. She immediately hit the brakes, turned into the nearest driveway and used it to turn around, leaving the scene quickly. Marcus' eyes widened and his chest tightened. His body felt numb seeing her leave a second time; it was like a slap to the face.

"You goddamn prick," The fox sneered, keeping the blaster right in the man's face. He could sense everything about this jerk as if he were reading an open book. "All you wanted to do is start a fight since you got up out of bed today. All you do is drive around in your work truck, tow someone's vehicle once or twice in a full day's worth of work and ride around the rest of the time, antagonizing people. You don't keep the company's name painted on the side of your truck so that those you harass don't call to get you fired. It's time someone taught you a lesson about humility and respect."

The scare tactic didn't work, which completely floored McCloud. The dog quickly replied, "Why don't you put that gun down and fight like a man if you want to teach a lesson." He couldn't believe that some random jerk became the cause of not being able to see his kid… not once but _twice_ in a row. His jaw hurt from being hit and getting slammed against the man's truck just seconds earlier and now he felt empty, like he'd just wasted everything; his time and the money in his pocket.

His heart was hurting and his stomach felt queasy. His shoulders ached and he had a headache from being nailed by Krystal's staff a few days prior. He was exhausted from experiencing a hard adrenaline rush followed by a powerful emotional crash just before waking up. McCloud's eyes were bloodshot and as far as he was concerned, this rottweiler just screwed with the _wrong_ Reynard today.

"C'mon bitchboy," The dog taunted. Marcus was growing angrier by the second. The taunting didn't stop. "Put the gun down and slug it out, you fairy. No _real_ man brings a gun to a fist fight, you pussy."

Marcus clinched the gun tight, keeping the barrel against the rottweiler's right eye, ready to put a hole into the man's head at a moment's notice. The pilot's voice started calm but grew louder with every spoken word. "No real man starts a fight with another man who just wants to take _FIVE SECONDS_ to see his _SON_."

The man shrugged, looking casual and arrogant. "You're stupid; you should'a pushed the girl down the steps then you wouldn't have to worry about that stupid shi-" The canine never finished his sentence. Marcus flipped his blaster over, grabbing it tightly by the barrel then clocked the man across his face with the butt of the weapon. He put all of his weight into the hit, pivoting hard on his heel and following through with the strike by leaning inward. The man began to slump downwards by Marcus wasn't about to lose his prey.

McCloud grabbed his adversary by the throat, stepped forward, putting his shoulder against the man's chest, then heaved away, flipping the guy head-over-heels to the ground. "Stop it, you two!" Someone shouted. McCloud's ears perked at the feminine voice but didn't care to glance back over his shoulder. Until now, he didn't even realize that this guy's girlfriend was in the passenger seat. He couldn't think straight and never sensed her presence to begin with.

His heart was pounding in his throat; Marcus' telepathy was feeding off of the intense sensations of wanting to fight coming from the thought patterns of this man. "I said stop it!" The girl in the passenger seat screamed at the top of her lungs. "I'm calling the cops!" Marcus didn't care. He was angry and hurting inside and all he wanted was to see his son; the baby boy that only came into existence a few days ago… at least as far as Marcus was involved. He took the blaster, using it like a mallet, and continued strike the man repeatedly across his face, freeing the torment and rage that boiled up inside.

Marcus opened his jaw to admonish the man but all that came out was, "LEAVE ME ALONE!" He continued to hammer away at the rottweiler, who was trying to use both paws to defend himself. "ALL I WANTED WAS TO SEE MY SON!" Thundered the fox, screaming at the top of his lungs. "I LOST MY FAMILY," He bellowed, "I LOST MY GIRL," He continued, driving the point home with, "MY MOTHER DIED IN MY ARMS YESTERDAY," he cried, even though it was _three_ days ago. As far as Marcus was concerned, he only just woke up from that incident with it fresh in his mind and heart.

His eyes were blazing with rage and he found himself beyond exasperated. His left eye's green contact had fallen out somewhere during the fight. For the first time since he was 16, Marcus McCloud's eyes didn't match. His left eye was a stark shade of blue, partially matching the navy locks of his headfur. Strands of cobalt stuck together from sweat, so that his hair resembled fabric spikes, strewn about over his forehead and ears.

In the distance, a wail of sirens could be heard leaving some vague part of Marcus to wonder at the back of his mind… how could cops show up so fast? Was there one just around the corner or were they coming for another reason and this was just a coincidence? Marcus tried to pry himself from fighting but it was difficult. For the moment, his telepathic abilities were in perfect harmony, giving him the ability to dodge every punch or kick this rottweiler tried to throw. Lying on his back in a prone position made it easier for McCloud to dodge and block his attempts, between stomping on the man and then striking him with the blaster handle again.

Tears of anger streamed down the vulpine pilot's face but he didn't need to see; he only needed to strike. The todd closed his eyes tightly, forcing the water from beneath those lids… his paws did the work, his body ran on adrenaline, his mind's eye dodged and blocked any return throws or kicks. He just didn't want to see this carnal scene of intense frenzy. Muddled words in the background sounded like the girlfriend screaming from the truck. She sounded upset but her voice was too muffled in the distance for it to sound coherent.

The Rottweiler was beginning to lose his willpower to continue this fight. Marcus could sense that he was wearing down and it was getting to the point now where the dog just began to cover his face with his paws. He also tucked his knees up against his stomach in a fetal position to block McCloud's heel against his gut. The fox wasn't sure but he thought he even heard the guy cry out some sort of surrender… he couldn't verify that right now; he was fighting for his life and releasing all the pent up anger and hurt in his heart. That sort of mixture had been a lethal combination back on Fichina… After all, because of his frenzy, a woman lay slain in a burning city because of that collaboration of hurt emotions and instincts. Had she not attacked Crimson, Marcus wouldn't have lost it… or would he? Was he just that bad of a person? It was strange; all the things that went through his mind while the world around him was in a state of violet chaos…

"Drop the weapon!" Someone shouted but McCloud couldn't be sure who said it. His mind was nearly mush right now and his instincts were tied in to his frontal lobe, allowing him to sense danger with tremendous accuracy. He suddenly bucked to the left but wasn't sure why. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, crawling along at a dreadfully sluggish speed. A red beam of light passed directly in front of the pilot, missing him by mere inches.

No thought passed through him; his mind was completely clear, which happened once his body began dodging blaster shots. Only the fuel of pain and anger remained coupled with his incredible reflexes combined from his mother and father's abilities. Without so much as thinking, Marcus placed his foot up upon the side of the tow truck, snatched the rottweiler by his collar and pushed his foot and his body weight against the truck to force the man's body upwards. Another shot lanced out, this one striking the body shield and rendering the dog into a stunned state.

The antagonist's body went limp, becoming complete deadweight. The force of the police issue stun blaster tore the body from Marcus' paws, knocking him flat onto his back. The frenzy didn't end, however. As police approached, the snarling pilot snapped and hissed at the officers who attempted to subdue him with handcuffs. It didn't work. Another officer ran up from the flanking position, drawing a tranquilizer weapon and training it on McCloud's head. "STAND DOWN!" one of them shouted.

Suddenly McCloud blinked, freezing in his tracks. An impending danger loomed in the air, causing his heart to skip a beat for a very long second. At that very instant, the world slowed to a complete stop. His mind searched and probed, attempting to validate such a danger. He glanced around with his eyes, aware of every instance of movement around him. His mental perspicacity gave him incredibly powerful acuity in that single second.

He sensed that there were four officers. One of them was across the street with a tranquilizer rifle. Two more were on either side of him with stun blasters and one was three meters in front of his face with a stun blaster trained forward. The rottweiler was face down on the asphalt, directly in front of him and he was on his back, lying in the street. To his immediate left, there was a glint of sunlight off of the metallic hull of the tow truck. A low rumble of a cry could be heard suspended in time… the female passenger was screaming a high pitched scream at the top of her lungs that sounded as dull and distant as a rumbling earthquake from a hundred miles away.

His gaze returned to the sky, wondering when this moment would finally conclude. That's when his eyes zeroed in on something in the azure firmament directly above the group. He squinted to make out the details of the small object in the bright day sky. His heart just about froze when he realized what he was looking at. It wasn't what he could see with his _eyes_ but what he could see in his _mind_. A missile… Its light cobalt painted hull made it difficult to see in the stratosphere against a blue backdrop but the fighter who launched it was radiating with such powerful excitement that Marcus' telepathy detected it.

McCloud jerked his body to the left, hard. The anger was forgotten for a moment, as instincts to survive became the complete and absolute cause for his survival and existence. He rolled his body beneath the adjacent truck, tucking his arms and crossing his paws over his chest. Time resumed, speeding up gradually; it grew faster and the normalcy of that instant of time finally returned.

The missile, high above the capital city, streaked through the heavens, heading towards downtown, only two miles from McCloud's location. The officers, having seen the wide-eyed look on his face before he rolled away from them, glanced up quickly. The pilot could sense their immediate trepidation and simultaneously could hear one of them calling into his radio to the dispatcher, screaming about an emergency.

"How in the hell?" The other one shouted while running back for his cruiser.

McCloud glanced over at the fallen rottweiler then groaned. He crawled back towards the unconscious man and grabbed his arm then shouted, "Get your ass out of that truck and get underneath of it, right now!" The woman, afraid for her life from the man who fought her boyfriend, quickly submitted, slinking out of the truck. "Hurry the hell up! Get under here!" McCloud's anger and rage was forgotten… for now. She quickly crawled beneath the truck, trembling under the assumption that if she didn't do as she was told, she would be the next in line for his wrath.

Once she saw that he was pulling the rottweiler beneath the truck, she quickly crawled over and helped by grabbing the dog's leg. "Keep your head down, I don't know what's in that missile but it's not just a small payload," McCloud said in a commanding voice. He and the woman worked together to get the fallen man underneath the still-running tow truck. Seconds later, the missile collided with a building in downtown Corneria.

"Dammit, I hope Bill is all right," He groused, lowering his face towards the ground. Seconds later, a titanic shockwave rushed through the area. Searing hot wind could be felt as if they'd just stepped out of the air conditioner and into the desert. It was so incredibly scorching that McCloud could hardly manage to swallow. His eyes clinched shut and in that snap moment, from when Katt drove away until the missile impacted in downtown Corneria, Marcus McCloud's life had made a sudden and dramatic change.

The woman was a stub-nosed bobcat, muscular in her chest and arms but well endowed and fairly trashy looking. For all of her physical prowess, she was a scaredycat when it came down to people that could defeat her boyfriend in a fight. It wasn't that Marcus was a better fighter or tougher than any other person… he simply had the gift of telepathy so that he could sense an opponent's next move to some degree. Now that the fight was over with, he felt he had a duty to help both of them stay safe and alive; his survival instincts kicked in, as did the inner aspirations and ambitions to help others, no matter who they were.

There was no time to be remorseful of the attack; McCloud simply had one thing on his mind right now… Contacting his team.

x- x- LINETOOLstillDOESNTworkTODAY -x -x

**Softly spoken lies**, that's the only thing Crimson O'Donnell could think of when his sister spoke to him. Bliss had retreated to a seedy outpost at the edge of Area6, where StarFox visited just days ago. She was in one of the local pubs, trying to avoid her brother but he was crafty and half-fox or not, he could track the scent of a vixen in any room under any condition.

The Folf wrapped his paw around her forceps, roughly turning her about until their eyes met. "I didn't quite catch that; something about how I'm a worthless mutt?"

"No," Bliss snapped, defensively. "I said that daddy likes me best because I'm going to take over StarWolf when I'm finished leading Wolf-pack. _I've_ got what it takes …and you like flying on the wing of someone _else_."

Crimson narrowed his eyes. "No, I want to hear exactly what you said, concerning the 'worthless mutt' comment."

"Goddess above, you're a thick headed sunnuvabitch, Crimson," She snapped, baring her teeth at the end of the sentence. "I _said_… Daddy feels that your team's success on Venom and Fichina, back to back, makes him wonder _if_ you're still just a worthless mutt."

"You're lying," Crimson snapped. "All I am to dad is a 'pup'. I could whip that old chump's tail in the ring or in the cockpit. He's practically senile now."

"Watch your mouth," Bliss retorted with a growl. "He's _hardly_ too old, that's why I moved out of the house."

"You moved out?" Crimson snorted. "Please, you're daddy's little girl _for life_."

"So? That doesn't mean I want to hang around every-damn-time that dad pins mom to the kitchen table. I can be daddy's girl and still live on my own… and _still_ kick your ass, Crimmy."

"I'm sure you could, O'B'iss." Crimson grinned deviously. He knew she hated that name. When he was a child, he couldn't pronounce his "L"'s very well and so he used to call her "B'iss." Later, as teenagers, when the two became very competitive, he started calling her "O'B'iss" as a play on words that sounded very close to 'Obese.'

"The only thing in this bar that's fat is your head, Corpulent Crimson," She rebutted with a roll of her eyes. "Furthermore," She began to add but suddenly, she stopped talking all together.

"What…?" Crimson suddenly dropped the argument, seeing the look on her face. She lifted her left paw, pointing at the television set just above the bar counter. He glanced over his shoulder then blinked. There, on the holo-vision, was a video loop taken from an amateur videographer. Crimson swallowed hard, seeing the devastatingly powerful missile slam into Corneria's downtown area. The blast ring extended for 2 miles in every direction, leveling nearly every building in its wake.

The News Satellite footage began to fizzle out, indicating that the feed from their main headquarters may have been struck by the blast. Neapolitan bars flashed across the screen with an automatic display banner that simply said, '_Please stand by… we are experiencing technical difficulties…'_ which scrolled from right to left. A moment later, the channel went dark. It hushed an entire bar, forty-seven people in all, to complete quiet.

"What the hell is that about?" Bliss said, breaking the silence. Crimson walked away from her, reproaching the television. He simply gawked at the screen, his heart beginning to pound in his chest. Bliss tilted her head, watching him with a confused look upon her maw. "What, you look like you're about to piss your pants," She added with her ever-snarky personality quirk.

"That was Downtown Central," Crimson muttered, the only person in the entire bar now speaking. "McCloud was at the hospital, ground zero down-frickin'-town!"

"What, your butt-buddy?" She countered with a smirk.

Crimson turned away from the television and began walking towards the door. "_You_'re the goddamn lesbian," he replied on the way out. "McCloud has been more of a brother than you've _ever_ been a sister," He snapped, heading through the doors and out into the promenade. Bliss looked shocked. She was quick witted and fiery tempered but his words still hurt her in some strange way that she couldn't quite comprehend. Her heart seemed to sink just slightly and for some reason, she let that remark cut through the 'ice-queen' defense. After all, her father and her brother were the only men she could really tolerate, other than her teammates… all of which were thought of as family in some way or another and not looked at as any certain gender.

It was just as the Blue-furred woman told her; Bliss would let herself be hurt one day soon by her brother and, for the first time, realize that she _does_ care about her only sibling.

"_Love is just a cute way of saying that you're giving another being the immense power to hurt your heart,"_ she recalled the woman saying. Bliss never knew that another person possessed the ability to …even so much as _scratch_ her ego… until now.

She began to head for the exit, walking out onto the station promenade… the further she got out onto the main section, the faster her pace became. Within a moment, she was running for the hanger bay until that run became a mad dash. She wasn't about to let Crimson go and get himself killed. After all, the woman with the blue fur already told the half-vixen to avoid Corneria. She had explained to Bliss that she could sense the iniquity behind the intent to smuggle a low-yield neutron missile in and use it on the city. "Crimson wait!"

She caught up with him just as he was beginning to board his fighter. "That was a Neutrino Blast; a Low-yield neutron fission missile! Andrew Oikonny is going to hold Corneria hostage with the threat of using a second, larger one. You can't go to Corneria! You'll die, damn you!"

"I have _family_ on that planet," Crimson snapped, gnashing his teeth at her due to her proximity. "You know it, as well as I do." He continued up the ladder to his fighter, slid into the cockpit then closed the canopy. Seconds later, the fighter came alive, beginning to grumble from its belly. A particle build up began to collect at the aft section and Bliss knew to back away from the craft before it took off.

"Damn you," She muttered to herself, stepping back over a yellow and black caution strip painted on the floor.

x- x- LINETOOLstillDOESNTworkTODAY -x -x

A/N: _I don't think this chapter is capable of topping 13 and 14, as far as angst, drama and power… but that doesn't mean I'm on a downhill spiral… I'm only warming up. After all, this is a devastating attack and StarFox is about to find themselves right in the middle of it. Can the team survive? Just remember, Star left the hospital to see his son… Just in time huh? Maybe that mystery guy knew about the blast and told him to leave the hospital 'quickly'… maybe a lot of things, but it's far too soon to tell. Oooo… creepy, enigmas everywhere! C'mon now, if he really was involved would I tell you? Or would I tell you then tell you I was joking only to surprise you all over again! Aw hell, who knows! _

-kitsy


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter -16-

**The blast wave of intense heat** soon passed. Marcus squinted his eyes, peering out from beneath the truck. The air felt unusually dry, void of humidity. He began to pull himself out from beneath the vehicle, casting a glance back at the woman and unconscious dog he was leaving behind. He climbed to his knees then stood up, facing the direction in which Katt had departed. Were they okay? He couldn't be sure.

He retrieved his communicator from his pocket but it was silent; its reception appeared to be nonexistent. Upon further examination, it simply had no power. He stole a fleeting glimpse over his shoulder then frowned, realizing that the tow truck had also stalled out. The entire neighborhood was filled with an eerie silence. The world beyond had fallen into a state of chaotic dissonance but this …_instant_ that surrounded his body… this very neighborhood, was incredibly quiet. The pilot did the first thing that came to his mind…

Marcus McCloud turned down West View Terrace and began to run. He wasn't sure if he was running after Katt and his son or if he was just running to get to the nearest communicator. He tried to piece everything together in his mind but all he could do right now was run. Young McCloud decided that he would have to figure everything out when he got to wherever he was going… but for now, he was just following his instincts.

He passed the cop cars at the top of the street, which were all stalled out. Their radios and internal electronic equipment was silent and inoperable. McCloud continued to run, leaving the neighborhood behind. His heart was pounding and his body felt numb but all he could do was run. This strange desire to hurry lasted for a solid thirty minutes.

He decided he wasn't keeping track of the time. After all, his wrist watch didn't function anymore. The hybrid fox, part Cornerian and part Cerinian, was strong and healthy… But _this_ run seemed to be emotionally therapeutic and therefore become necessary to his health on a level other than physical. Marcus continued to tear off down the road, one foot in front of the other until he became distracted by something…

Whatever it was, it caught his eye, glinting in the mid-afternoon sunlight. There was a vehicle on the side of the road, stalled out. The motionless machine sat in a state of rest until he approached to gawk at it. His jaw fell slack and his stomach began to ache with butterflies, knotting up in worry, seeing it up ahead.

It was identical to the vehicle that Katt Monroe left in. He didn't have the stamina to quicken his pace after running for a solid half of an hour; he simply continued at a full run until he reached the vehicle. It was unlocked and sat upon its belly because the hover pads were powered down. He opened the back door first and saw the bottom half of a car seat strapped down but no carriage. A bag with two clothing outfits was on the floor but the baby and Katt were missing.

Somehow, he took a strange comfort in the fact that she took the Arwing Plush toy with the baby, even though the clothes were abandoned. Considering the situation, he couldn't be upset with her even though it left him with mixed emotions. Upon closer examination, he noted that the keys were still in the ignition but his attempt to power it up was futile. The battery cells were depleted completely; the circuitry was fried out from electromagnetic pulses caused from the Nuclear Weapon's detonation.

Marcus moved back to the backseat and snatched the bag of clothes. He checked the trunk for any gear that he might be able to use but only managed to find an empty diaper bag with a double strap. The fox fooled with the two straps for a moment until they were long enough that he could shoulder the bag. He put the two outfits into it then Katt's car keys. A warm bottle of spring water was underneath one of the car seats and after thoroughly searching the vehicle for any gear, he opted to take the bottle and put it in the make-shift knapsack.

Once he was ready, he turned his attention once more to the back seat where the baby carrying unit was missing. The seriousness of the situation was setting in, causing him to swear under his breath. He turned away from the vehicle and began to scout the area. Nobody was in sight and it was still two and a half miles to the Corneria Capital City line. Under conventional methods, such as a Hover Car, he was only minutes from Uptown… and while he was somewhat pleased to have proof that they were alive, it was still difficult seeing this car sitting on the side of the road. He was too worried to remain logical, thinking that they could possibly be in an unsafe area.

A shadow loomed in the sky over his shoulder. The massive charcoal-colored pillar hung motionlessly with an eerie billowing section at the top, which mushroomed out and now hung over the city, blocking out all sunlight. He tried to close his eyes and push out all distractions so that he could sense where Katt or baby Falco had gone but he couldn't feel anything except for mass hysteria emanating from downtown. Confusion and panic were so loud that it drowned out everything else in his heart and mind.

"Shut the hell up, so I can hear my son and his grandmother," McCloud muttered under his breath at the city directly to his right. Nothing. They were swallowed up by the cacophony of cries for help that he could hear in his head. It was giving him a migraine and his temples were starting to ache. Marcus was pretty sure that Katt would _not_ go towards the city. With a feverish baby, she would most likely head somewhere safe. However, there were 7 other directions to go on a compass and so he decided that heading into the city was the best thing to do, so he could ensure that Bill was alive and go from there.

He didn't want to do anything but find his _child_. However, it was simply going to be impossible given the fact that he had no idea where to look. The ever-youthful fox gave a sniff at the air but there was no scent. There were no prints in the pavement and all he could do was curse before going back to running. This time, he headed right for Corneria City, crossing the green fields that surrounded the massive municipality. As Marcus grew closer, he began to notice that some of the vegetation in the fields was cooked. Some of the vegetables were ready to serve right off the vine; this was nothing that Corneria taught in high school. _What had the power to do such a thing_? Such an eluding question hung in his mind leaving no clues to make even an educated guess.

Up ahead, he could see buildings coming in to view. One of the first places in the uptown section, right on the Cornerian Capital City Line, was a drugstore. The windows were cracked from the blast but due to the lack of proximity of ground zero, they were still in place. McCloud pushed the door open and stepped inside, approaching the counter. "What in the hell just happened?" It was all he could ask. He wanted to say something more intelligent but he couldn't bother to think of words before opening his mouth.

The store clerk was a beagle with large brown eyes. He offered an ephemeral glance from his position at the counter, then continued to place his belongings into a suitcase and said, "My _great-great grandfather_ told my _great_ grandfather, who told me… about clouds like the one that's looming over downtown…"

"I don't follow," said Marcus. The fox could only tilt his head in confusion, his ears lying flat for a moment. "What _is_ that cloud? Don't those things represent missiles that were used in wars that were fought like… Three Hundred _years_ ago? I vaguely remember seeing something about it on a historical television channel…"

"C'mere," The beagle said, taking out a bottle from beneath the counter. "This is called KI-03, some call it IOSAT. It's a potassium iodide concentration that blocks radiation from affecting your thyroid. I have pills for you to take but this is the last bottle of the liquid form and I'm keeping it for myself. Take some," He continued, pouring a spoonful and holding it up. Marcus simply stared at him, blinking rapidly.

Marcus could sense that the pharmacist knew what he was talking about and so the pilot relented, leaning over the counter to capture the spoon in his muzzle. McCloud still had money in his pocket and pulled some out to buy the pills but the store owner rejected the credits, saying, "Insurance will pay for my store. Take this stuff, you'll die without it. I know who you are; I _can't_ charge you." The druggist smiled slightly, pushing the bottle of pills towards the bewildered pilot. "My sister lived on Fichina and she said she survived because you killed that woman." The gentleman than paused before adding, "I appreciate it."

Marcus immediately had mixed emotions. He was partially grateful that he helped ensure this man's sister lived but the reminder of killing Krystal was too hard to bare. The liquid was nearly tasteless and so he simply swallowed it, looking disgusted over the topic of conversation. "Oh it doesn't taste that bad, son," The man chuckled slightly. It was a dry, grim sounding chuckle as if he was attempting to stay good natured and pleasant in the face of a nuclear attack just outside of his store.

"I didn't want to kill that woman with my bare paws," Marcus said softly. "But I had no choice and now I'm regretting the fact that her blood is on my soul. Thank you for the pills; I'll find my own way from here. Are you sure this protects against radiation?"

"Very low levels, sure," Said the beagle with a firm nod of his head. "I'm sorry you feel guilty about that. Look, whatever you do, Mister McCloud, don't head into the downtown area. High levels of radiation will cause your fur to fall out and your body to become very sick. You may live for a few days if you go downtown but it won't last very long and you _will_ die."

"Why don't I know anything about this stuff?" He asked, tilting his head in a state of growing confusion.

"Nuclear fission is against the law in Lylat and has been for a few hundred years," The man said, adding, "But back in my university days, I wasn't sure if I wanted to major in History or Medicine. So I learned a good bit about the Titania space war that happened three _hundred_ years ago. That's why that planet became a desert. Corneria was able to come up with a cure to make the air breathable. Doctor Andross created a way to make the fallout's half-life become dramatically reduced until it came to an absolute end but… it's still nothing but dirt now, where it used to be lush and green with climate controls and flourishing life. Macbeth suffered the same fate. After that, Corneria banned nuclear and replaced it with Fusion power."

"I see," McCloud mumbled softly, his eyes dropping just a bit. He didn't like hearing anything _good_ about Andross, even if it was in reference to the Doctor's youth days back on Corneria.

The Pharmacist tilted his head slightly and told the boy, "From my very primitive understanding of the concept itself, I've gathered that Andross Oikonny is the one who invented the Gravity Bomb after discovering a technique to double-split an atom, causing an implosion on the space-time field. It was previously thought impossible in the way he did it but…he did it, which proved Cornerian scientists to be wrong. Like I said, I got into Medicine and History, not quantum physics. But that doesn't mean I don't like to read. I suggest you leave the city; I'll be doing the same, shortly. If you die, then the hope Corneria has will go down the tubes. You and your lineage are rather important figureheads in the safe keeping of Corneria; three generations of McClouds' have saved this planet. You did know that, right?"

"I… guess," McCloud simply shrugged, lifting his eyes back up to the man and taking the pills. He put them into the converted diaper bag on his shoulder then sighed. "I know one thing: We're cursed to not have the perfect, happy family. My grandmother was killed then my grandfather… by the same man. My mother and father were killed by Andross' Gravity bomb and lord knows, I'm struggling with my own family issues."

The druggist nodded slowly then said, "I'm sorry to hear that. Your family has sacrificed a great deal to keep Corneria safe; my hopes and prayers are with your success. Take care. Again… my advice is for you to leave this planet immediately. If you'll excuse me, I've got to get ready, myself."

"Thanks for the pills," Marcus said, turning back from the counter. He walked back outside, tightening his paws into fists to give some physical depiction that better portrayed the strengthening of his resolve. Once outside again, he began walking towards the epicenter against the better judgment of the pharmacist. People were leaving the city in throngs; long lines of different species walked down the streets in the opposite direction McCloud was going. He rounded another corner, stopping in the middle of an empty intersection, which put him in direct line of sight to ground zero. His heart seemed to stop, just seeing the looming cloud motionlessly hanging in the sky.

While his mind was filled with thousands of cries for help, it did in fact seem as though at least a _hundred thousand_ voices were quiet compared to his last visit to this city, only a few hours ago. His heart felt as though it were in his stomach, causing some measure of pain in his gut. Glassy emeralds held that vision of his birthplace, burning every detail into his mind. This is a scene he would never forget. He was still over two miles from the center but he knew he had to keep going to make sure that Bill was safe. He also had to keep going to make sure that this city was _not_ the host of his only child. Verifying that they _weren't_ here seemed to be the right thing to do.

The further he went into the city the more his body screamed to turn around and leave. This section of Corneria Capital was shrouded in gloom from the lack of sunlight. Horrible shadows were burned into the sidewalks where people stood at the moment of detonation. Their vague outlines were forever etched into the ground, illustrating and documenting their last seconds of life. Some of the silhouettes made it obvious that a few covered their faces with their arms to ward off the flash before the shockwave. The immense sensation of death was fresh here, causing Marcus' fur to bristle up.

A walker lay on its side in the middle of an intersection. The charred, gnarled remains of an elderly being had collapsed to the ground; their flaking black husk was cooked clean through to the core. At a glance, it looked as though their jaw was gaping. It was a disgusting visual to be sure… there were fewer bodies closer to ground zero, where the residents were disintegrated between the heat and the radiation-filled blast. The fallen walker looked twisted, warped by the intense power of the heat that followed the immense nuclear flash.

The last vestiges of surviving people seemed to be fleeing town. From the initial flash of heat, several automobiles and homes were on fire and a plaster-like coating carpeted the city in this area. There were dust fragments floating from the sky. They came from anything that was vaporized, including the remnants of those who perished in the seconds following the great flash. Something called out to McCloud's mind, causing him to break into a run once more.

Pasty, pallid particles rained over the city, swirling about his feet in the oddly warm breeze. It held his footprints, retaining some measure of shape for a few moments after each step. Marcus' heart pounded and the sensation of death carried by these tiny flakes of gray only added to the strange feeling of mental blackout around him. It felt very wrong to be here. They continued to flutter from the sky, an endless cascade of soot and tiny debris. The massive bulbous cloud above the city continued to hang in the sky, motionless.

Dashing across the street and into an alley, Marcus came across a convertible that was on fire. Coughing caused his ears to perk up and he approached the vehicle, staying weary. Suddenly a paw pressed up against the foggy back window and his chest wrenched, forcing a gasp from his lips. He quickly dropped the diaper bag to the ground and ripped his shirt off. Hastily coiling it around his right paw, he used it to cover his fist before punching out the back window. His cloth-covered paw was used to push out the glass edges that lined the canvas backing then he reached in for whoever was trapped inside.

A little girl reached up towards Marcus and he captured her beneath her arms, collecting her into his palms. Pulling her free from the glass, Marcus sat her back down on the ground, looking her over for any signs of injury. She collapsed to her knees, coughing from the smoke that was now billowing out of the broken glass. About 13 or 14, the young skunk covered her face with her paws, still nearly choking on the billowing dark cloud which was now overtaking the vehicle.

"Are you all right?" Marcus asked, uncoiling the shirt from his right paw. He shook it out to free it of glass but it was now covered with light blood splotches from the light cuts and scrapes his paw and wrist sustained from the glass. There were a few tears in the fabric but it did the job he intended for it to do. "You could have died in there; where are your parents?"

"Momma is dead," She wheezed, pointing back at the car. A darkened form was slumped over the wheel, half engulfed by an airbag. For the first time, Marcus suddenly noticed the acrid stench of burning flesh and fur. It was rather nauseating and quickly caused him to draw the girl away from the vehicle, tucking her face into his chest. "Let's go over this way. You'll have to trust me, sweetheart; I have pills that you should probably take, given to me by a pharmacist who I met uptown."

"Uptown?" The girl said, still in shock over the situation. She was trying to act as though everything was normal and therefore kept a nearly typical conversation without flinching. "But that means you are coming _towards_ downtown. Why would you do that? Everyone is leaving!" The skunkette's tail dropped to the ground, resting in the dusty debris. Her black and white fur was partially gray in soot, leaving McCloud to wonder if she crawled into the car after the explosion or if there was something more to her story. He wasn't able to feel her intentions because he couldn't concentrate.

"Yeah," Marcus admitted with a slow nod. "I am coming from outside of the city. I have friends here and I have to make sure they're safe," He explained, reaching for the diaper bag on the ground. "I have half a bottle of warm spring water and some pills that will help you from getting sick. I need for you to trust me and take this because from what I've been told, you could die from the poison in the air."

"I don't want to die," The girl moaned, frowning pitifully. "I'm Janice Flowers but everyone calls me Jane. I guess I should know your name before I go swallowing some pills offered by a stranger."

"I'm glad you're willing to trust me," Marcus replied. "Considering that we're the only ones left in this part of town, I think our only option is to trust one another. I'm Marcus McCloud."

"Marcus?" She tilted her head, looking him over for a moment. She noted the bluish headfur and star shaped marking over his eye and asked, "Are you related to Star McCloud?"

He opened the diaper bag then took out the KI03 bottle and the spring water. "I _am_ Star McCloud but I changed my name because I didn't like it," explained the pilot. "Jane, can you walk well? I need for you to leave the city."

"I want to go with you," She said. "Don't talk me out of it; mom always said that I'm stuck in my ways, so you're stuck with me. Maybe I can help you. Where is your friend at?"

"I don't know… it might be too dangerous for you," Marcus said before adding, "He's at the Defense Headquarters. Why, do you know where it is?"

"I was born in this city and yes, it's not far," She replied. "We can come back for mom right?" She lowered her eyes once again and said, "I know she's dead. I just don't want to see that right now. It's too much. Please, just take me with you. I don't want to be alone."

"All right," Marcus sighed, relenting to the whim of her sad expression. "You're in shock right now. But I'm warning you… if you come with me, you may die from sickness." Snowflakes of ash and fallout dropped from the sky like confetti in a celebration of death. It layered the world around them in silence with its deadly blanket.

"I don't care," Jane retorted, stomping her foot and looking resolved in her desire to have company. "It's this way," She added, beginning to walk back into the alley. Marcus followed her, fumbling to get out one of the pills. He closed the cap and put it back into the diaper bag then reshouldered it. As they walked, he handed her the pill and the water. She didn't argue, which made him glad to some extent. Once she handed the remaining bottle of water back, he put it into the makeshift bag and zipped the side shut. "It's not far," She said, emerging from the other side of the alley. "Do you think we'll be safe there?"

"It's possible," Marcus said. They stepped out onto the Cornerian streets which were coated in a pale, gray blanket. It was far dirtier looking than the flash mental image of Fichina burning down around him; Corneria looked like a post-apocalyptic graveyard. Animals, people and plant life were all missing, having been disintegrated. Jane's eyes were bloodshot from the dust particles and some of the fur upon her head and tail was already starting to thin out... or perhaps it was the way the dust was settling on her fur. Marcus couldn't quite tell.

Shedding ever so slightly in her wake, the skunk looked in very poor shape. Noticing that he was glancing at her, she folded her arms and quickly said, "I'm fine. We're not far, come on." She quickened her pace and so McCloud did the same, following suite. She cut through downtown, taking alleys instead of main streets. Within a few moments, they stepped from between two buildings and stopped, facing the majestic looking architecture of the military Headquarters. "See?" She announced, lifting her left paw to point. "Right there."

"It looks like the blast didn't even faze it," McCloud said, noting that the windows were intact and that the building seemed fairly undisturbed. The two headed up the stairs and Marcus opened the main door only to gasp in surprise at a man inside the lobby. His eyes were missing and a gooey mixture of blood and melted-looking paste covered his cheeks. Quickly, Marcus snatched Jane by her shoulders and turned her away from the man, to keep her gaze averted.

"I can't … I can't see anything," The canine said, kneeling on the floor. "I looked outside, through the windows and the sky lit up in a flash brighter than I've ever seen and now… everything is dark," He told them. "My face is wet, I think I'm sweating but I don't feel hot," the man added. Marcus' stomach turned; he immediately felt nauseous.

"You don't want to see what's out there, it's not much left," The pilot calmly replied. "C'mon Jane," He told the girl, pointing down the hall. "I've been in _this_ building before. Follow me." He used his paws to guide her away from the lobby so that she didn't see the man whose eyes melted but she stole a peek over her shoulder, just the same. Once they were further down the hall, she reached up and tugged on McCloud's tattered shirt.

"What was wrong with that man's face?" She asked.

"The flash did something to his eyes," Marcus muttered, quickening his pace as if to hurry her away from the man back in the lobby. "C'mon, we have to make sure that Bill is okay. He's the new General of Corneria and he should be able to help us." Jane had nothing to say to his words. She just hurried after him, heading towards the first staircase they could find. Marcus snatched her up into his right arm. Even though she was a preteen, he held her like a toddler, using his hip to hold her weight with one arm around her waist.

The pilot took the steps two at a time until they reached the floor that he had visited earlier in the day. Once there, he let her back to the ground. She lifted her paw and held him with an expectant, rich mocha gaze. Coffee colored irises captured his heart and he nodded, taking her paw into his. From there, the two walked down the hall and through the damaged section which was now abandoned. She wiggled her fingers up under a hospital bracelet that hung from his wrist. He'd not noticed that he'd been wearing it before now and didn't really care to remove it at this point.

They continued on until he reached Bill's office. Turning the knob, the door opened but the room was empty. "Dammit," muttered McCloud, burying his face into his left palm. "Now what?"

The skunk shrugged and used her free paw to hook a thumb back over her shoulder. "I thought places like this have shelters for attacks?" Jane's logic was simple and yet flawless.

His left paw slid down over his face and stopped beneath his jaw. "The Goddess knows; you're probably right, Jane. Let's go back to the steps." Suddenly, McCloud froze in his tracks. He could feel the presence of another and yet he couldn't yet detect if the intentions were hostile or friendly. He whirled back around, reaching for his blaster but it was sitting beneath a tow truck on West View Terrace. His gaze locked with that of a middle-aged ape-like creature. "Ash!" It's all he could say.

"It's _DASH_," Bowman replied. His clothes were covered in dirt and grime but he looked rather healthy and in good condition. "You're Fox's kid, right? I've not seen you since shortly after you were born; forgive me that I don't recall your name. You people have to get out of here or go underground. There should be an old tunnel that leads from the fallout shelter to the subway. Don't go back outside or you'll die."

"Yeah," the fox nodded, "I'm Marcus McCloud and this is Jane Flowers. We're looking for Bill Gray. What are you doing here?"

Dash Bowman folded his arms and with a flat voice, declared, "Mind your own business, little todd. I'm here on an agenda you can't possible understand. My second cousin will crush both Corneria and Venom if _I_ don't stop him. Where is General Grey?"

"He's your second cousin?" Marcus replied, blinking rapidly. "You're related to Andrew Oikonny?"

"I'm Andross' grandson," Dash snapped. "Andrew is my Grandfather's nephew, and that makes us second cousins," He added, unfolding and refolding his arms. "Where is William Gray?"

"We don't know," Jane piped up. "We think he's downstairs so stop having an attitude and come with us. We should find him if we work together." The young skunk was bristling with personality. Dash glanced over at her and frowned. He wanted to scold Marcus for having a young civilian with him but he also had to respect her concise wording.

The ape paused. "For a child, you make a logical point," Bowman muttered.

"Doesn't she, though?" Marcus added, hooking a thumb back down the hall. "We were just heading back towards the stairs. Let's go."

The coterie left Bill's office and retraced their steps back down the hallway. Marcus took the lead and Dash followed the two in silence. As they returned to the staircase, McCloud asked, "I have pills that are supposed to keep you from getting sick, you should probably take them since you're here."

Dash simply rolled his eyes. "Look, kid. It's radiation sickness that you're talking about. Potassium pills for your thyroid won't protect you properly. You have to go through radiation De-Tox if you ever plan to have kids or keep your fur. They'll have a de-tox facility in a fallout shelter in a place like this. Let's hurry; we don't have much time until Andrew's forces attempt to overcome this planet."

"I thought he was _the one true air_ to Andross," Marcus asked. The group continued downstairs, passing the first floor and heading into the sub-sections of the base. "It's what he claims half the time you come across him, anyhow."

"That's his public claim," Dash spat, grimacing in frustration. "I'll personally rip him apart when I come across him. I've taken the liberty of hiring a mercenary squadron to capture him… _alive_."

"Oh? I have a team for hire," Marcus replied. They continued down as far as the staircase would allow, to the fifth sub-floor. "Who did you hire?"

"Wolf-Pack, led by Wolf O'Donnell's daughter," Dash answered. "This must be it; I'm sure there are blast doors or some method of difficult entrance designed to keep them safely sealed away but I can't be sure of that. Let's see what we can find, down here."

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**Wily, if not odd,** Panther Caruso was a man of action and just as much a romantic as he was twenty-five years ago. It was the last time he'd seen Krystal in person and strangely enough, he still had feelings for her. He loathed Andross for destroying her just as much as he rejoiced over the death of her mate, Fox McCloud. But what he was seeing now caused him to gape in silence which was very unlike him.

"_This is a Channel Delta-5 Exclusive! The positive ID on the body does in fact match that on record of Krystal McCloud: one of the first extra terrestrials to call Lylat Home in the last 3 decades. The autopsy reports clearly indicate that her death was caused from a severe heart attack and **not** the staff which impaled her. What we know at this point is that her Identification names her as "KURSED" and not "KRYSTAL" but there is no doubt about her identity, as the DNA is a match. The question of her death leaves critics to wonder if the Son of Fox McCloud was truly the saving grace of Fichina!" _The news cast continued, drawing Panther in. His eyes only blinked once or twice throughout the entire report.

It continued, "_Fox McCloud's son, Star, was notably the hero of the day on Fichina earlier this week. Putting his personal feelings aside, he single handedly fought and defeated Krystal McCloud, stopping her from destroying Fichina's Capital city and possibly more cities. The motive behind her rampage is unclear, as is the fate of Young McCloud. He was admitted to a hospital for collapsing after the fatal melee combat; a hospital which was at the center of Corneria's Capital City. McCloud's fate is unknown at this time, the hospital was completely demolished in this afternoon's attack."_ The reporter paused then held out his feline paw to a beagle. The camera panned a bit then zoomed back to widen the shot.

The beagle looked tired and wore a name badge for a pharmaceutical brand name store. "_This gentleman personally spoke with Mister McCloud around noon, today, shortly after the devastating attack on Corneria, leaving some of us with hope that a McCloud will again rise up to protect Lylat... whether alone or with the help of a StarFox-esque squadron, that remains YET to be seen. At this time, we have not had a press conference with Acting General William "Bill" Grey. Can you tell us anything about Mister McCloud, when you saw him?" The cougar asked, tilting the mic towards the homely beagle. _

"_Well," _The shop keeper seemed nervous being on television_. "He didn't know what happened to Corneria, just like most of the citizens at that point. I knew it right away and I knew we had to get out of the city as soon as possible but that's another story all together. I gave Mister McCloud some Potassium Iodide pills to protect him from radiation poisoning and he thanked me. I noticed that he was wearing a wristband with his information and the hospital's logo on it which helped me to confirm his identity but I didn't say anything at the time. He seemed like he was in a hurry to be on his way so I warned him that Radiation was lethal and let him go. He certainly seemed like a man on a mission; He has my deepest condolences if he really did kill his mother to save the people of Fichina… no one can ask of a greater sacrifice to give to help the people of Lylat. I don't care what her actual cause of death was; he's a hero and I'm grateful that he saved my sister." _

The feline drew the microphone back from the Beagle and said, _"There you have it! Star McCloud is considered a hero to the eyes of Lylat Citizens, following in his father's paw-prints. McCloud's team has not yet been contacted and the state of Corneria, after this incredible attack, is now unknown. Evacuations continue and all of Lylat is wondering… where is StarFox? This is Jackson Minardi for Channel Delta-5 Action News!_" The broadcast ended and a commercial replaced the two men on the screen.

Had Krystal really survived Andross' wrath? Why would she have changed her name to KURSED? His paws were nearly shaking and he tried to rationalize that it had been twenty-five years but he couldn't stop the natural reaction. His eyes fluttered shut for a moment and he let himself slip into a moment of reverie…

…twenty-five years ago…

_Fox McCloud's form fluttered over the holographic emitter and Krystal, still donned in her flight suit and Cornerian uniform helmet fidgeted nervously for a moment. "It looks like you guys are heading for Venom," She said. "How will you survive those acidic oceans?" _

"_We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. …I suppose." Fox's wavering hologram kept his stern green eyes forward. The Inari-red scarf was bright in contrast to his silver jacket. _

_Krystal blinked, placing her paws upon her hips, "HA! I never thought I'd see the day! The great Fox McCloud at a loss for ideas!" Fox had no reply to her words. "I guess you thought that you could do everything by yourself, right?" _

_Fox suddenly folded his arms and retorted, "That's not true! That's why I came to find you… I wanted to ask for your help." _

_Krystal seemed to feel safe behind her helmet and visor. Panther was at her side; his paw was at the small of her back. Her yellow flight scarf had been a gift from him and she wore it with pride, especially in front of her ex-mate who hurt her so badly in the past. "The Krystal you once knew is gone. She is no longer a part of YOUR world." _

"_Krystal," Fox replied softly, "I was a fool!" His voice grew in intensity, adding, "A selfish, rude, arrogant fool. Please come back!" _

"_Well…" Krystal trailed off for a moment. Panther grew worried, seeing her consider it. "If you apologize to me. In front of everyone. Then maybe I'll think about it. Maybe." Fox was silent for a moment. Panther couldn't stomach this and stepped into the holo-field. _

"_Krystal, don't let this rogue change your mind! Let's get out of here!" He said in a firm, confident tone. He wasn't about to lose his vixen to the likes of Fox McCloud. His eruption helped Fox rationalize the reality of the situation and of his desire to repair their relationship. _

_After a moment, Fox replied with a softly spoken tone. "I'm… Sorry…" His eyes lowered slightly and Krystal simply tilted her head, almost leering at his form which hovered above her holo emitter. _

"_What was that?" She asked, shifting her hips and her weight upon her other foot. "I couldn't quite hear you." _

"_I'm sorry, Krystal!" Fox suddenly erupted. "I'm so sorry!" He was suddenly interrupted by Leon who approached Panther and Krystal and smirked at Fox for his emotional outburst. _

"_Oh, I'm so sorry!" Leon chided in an ostracizing way, quick to send to Coventry. "Boo hoo! Whhhhkkkksssshhh!" He repeated the strange hissing sound twice. Fox's resolve seemed to strengthen and he continued with his apology. _

"… _I'm truly sorry. Please… Please come with me. I need you with me." He sounded heartfelt and sincere. Krystal was quiet for a moment, contemplating his sad attempt at retribution. She was still angry at him but she couldn't resist him for some reason which caused Panther to step back in to the conversation. _

"_This is absurd!" The cat roared, "Krystal, tell this loser where to stuff his Arwing and let's go!" She remained silent for a moment longer. She then removed her helmet and began to walk back to the flight deck where her Cornerian fighter was waiting. Panther simply stood there, shocked and hurt. It would be a hurt he would never forget. It didn't matter how cold she was towards Fox for the next several missions; she walked out of Panther's life and never looked back… Panther Caruso's ego was horribly injured from that point on. _

The reverie came to a conclusion and he suddenly realized that he was shaking with rage, his paws balled up. The large panther took a long, slow breath and sighed deeply. Krystal apparently survived and was alone. For her to go on a rampage over Fichina wasn't something Panther could hold against her, but for the young McCloud to kill her for the attack… that was something that enraged Panther Caruso to no end. How could _anyone_ murder his space-flower? His eyes lowered once more and there, before him, was a sniper rifle mounted to his wall. A dark, sadistic smile crept over his muzzle… Young McCloud would pay the ultimate price. Panther had not assassinated someone in years - since living within the ranks of StarWolf. That was about to change…

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**A metallic booted crunched softly upon raw remains of downtown Corneria.** The lavender painted boot matched perfectly to the pink pinstriped pants that ran up the toned leg it housed. A green visor covered the pink and purple helmet of the wearer; the helmet was specially designed in that it held the shape of an almost bat-like structure. Fallout debris slid off of its waxy surface, leaving the suit a clean, glossy and somewhat reflective surface. She who wore it had no intentions of doing anything but drawing attention with it. Her mission was one of diversion in a complex extraction plan.

The female within continued across the desolate remains of Corneria, heavily armed in all accounts. Thermal Grenades were attached along the small of her back, clipped in a strip that ran along her spine. Duel blaster rifles were strapped to her back with twin blaster pistols on her thighs. A pair of SMG Blasters had been strapped to her chest within easy reach of her paws. A StarFox logo was recently painted on the front of the helmet and over her left ribcage. Her tail was housed within the shapely hip unit that connected the top of the suit to the bottom, keeping the woman safe from any radiation.

Up ahead, she could see a squadron of lizards setting down in ground transportation ships. Approximately ten men were dispatched from each ship, rappelling from the skids to the ashen soil below. The vixen quickly took cover behind the nearest structure, the burning frame of a large industrial transportation truck. She placed the back of her shoulders up against the vehicle's remains, keeping her lower back away from the metal framework due to the grenades that were attached just above her tail.

Her left paw reached up to adjust the passenger side mirror. It was half-way bubbled over from being partially melted during the initial blast but it was still semi-functional as a mirror for her defensive use. She plucked the mirror from the passenger-side door above her head then lifted it up to watch the troops scatter about the parameter. They moved quickly to secure the outside section surrounding the Cornerian Military Headquarters building.

The surprising efficiency of their actions left her wondering; they were a much more intelligent enemy than she remembered of Venom troops. It quickly dawned on her that they were acting on their own will and not of the mind control from the telekinetic amplifier that Andross had designed. From what she'd read in a history book last week, the telekinetic amp was used for two things: First, its primary job was to make use of inanimate objects. Andross would have the ability to take an asteroid and chuck it at an approaching Arwing Fighter. Second, the amplifier was designed to emit psycho suppression & supremacy waves that allowed hegemony which completely stifled subjugation.

_These_ lizards were wearing Venom logos but they were quick witted and highly intelligent with their troop formations and maneuvers. It somewhat saddened her to see that they were acting so obviously of their own free will. However, she decided that she would feel far less guilty knowing that she was about to fight an enemy that acted hostile because it _wanted_ to. Whether or not the lizards followed Oikonny to restore their economy and personal power, she didn't know. All she knew was that she was going to be the phantom fennec, taking them down by means of attrition.

Footsteps caused a proximity warning alarm in her suit to vibrate against the nape of her neck. She silently rolled beneath the remains of the truck and located a scout who was coming around this side of the vehicle. The woman was stealthy and silent, kicking his feet out from beneath him. She rolled over, smothering the lizard, then brought her padded elbow down, cracking her adversary's helmet visor.

She quickly noted that his hands were reaching for a communicator on his belt and she reacted accordingly. With a quick motion of her paws, one was placed at the lizard's throat while the other went for his forearm, snatching his hand from the communicator on his utility belt. Not about to be placed back into stasis for another several decades, the vixen shifted her weight hard, breaking the man's wrist.

With a quickness that only a graceful vixen could possess, she reached for a combat knife sheathed on the lizard's leg. Drawing the dagger, she flipped it around in her paw and drove it directly through his cracked visor. The body beneath her form was overcome by a sharp spasm but it only lasted a moment. The vixen rolled off of him then shoved his body beneath the derelict big rig and complete silence resumed. She was on a mission and getting killed wasn't part of her mandate.

Across the square, she saw the large building come under fire. Occasional flashes were seen in the windows from what was left of the Cornerian guard unit but she knew that the building would be quickly overrun. Drawing the rapid-fire submachine guns from her chest, the unidentified StarFox member quickly set off towards the building. She plucked a thermal detonation device from her lower back then used one of the machineguns in her other paw like a baseball bat. The small circular device went flying through the air, landing a block down the road. It exploded, creating a diversion to allow the fennec vixen the leeway necessary to sprint across the street without being shot at.

All around her, silvery powder fell from the sky. Flakes of ash and particles of those unlucky enough to have been vaporized fluttered from above. The vixen's footprints were simply small in size as she ran on the balls of her feet, light on her toes. Her graceful steps were perfectly placed and as dainty as a lady's footfalls could ever hope to be.

The SMG blasters bucked gently in her paws, mowing down two of Venom's elite guardsman. Taking the stone steps two at a time, she covered one quarter mile under a minute flat. Guns blazing, the fennec mowed down one of the side-entrance doors leading inside the building. As she passed through the self-made hole, a blaster shot glanced off of her suit, which absorbed the energy, displacing it. According to the readout present within the green visor, the vixen still had 94 percent of her suit shielding intact.

One more Venom guard was lying in wait just inside the building. He turned into the doorway with his gun drawn and she moved evasively to avoid taking the direct hit. The clever girl lifted her paws and both SMG weapons above her head then arched her back going into a cartwheel. Her elbows bent then stiffened, catapulting her upwards. Half-flipping in mid-air, she twisted her body, much like a feline, then gracefully extended her right leg. The maneuver was over in the blink of an eye and the successful dropkick felled her foe.

Landing upon one foot and one knee with the fallen guard behind her, she reached one of the SMG's back, not even caring to take visual aim. A squeeze of the trigger ended his life and she quickly rose to her feet. Lying on the floor, there was another dead man wearing a Cornerian uniform. His tie had a bloody paw print on it and a strange goop-like substance covered his cheeks. The viscosity of the liquid was that of sludge and she paused for a moment to look him over. He was dead; coagulated blood pooled on the floor in front of his snout and, even fouler, his eyes were partially missing. The grotesque scene gave her shivers; she had no plans to stick around in this area… The vixen sprinted off down the corridor, heading deeper into the base.

Within her visor, a targeting grid displayed itself. She lifted those duel blasters and the Wi-Fi connection between weapon and suit established an optical targeting reticule in the heads up display grid. Two small red targeting boxes moved around the grid in front of her eyes, showing where her weapons were pointed with perfect accuracy.

A reception indicator showed four-out-of-four bars on the far left and far right side of her visor, registering perfect connectivity to the optical sensors in her weapons. Now that she was inside, away from the fallout, she would be able to make use of the targeting system of her suit. Silvery-tinted windows on either side of the hallway shattered and ground troops quickly infiltrated the structure, directly in front of her.

The suited vixen sauntered gracefully down the hallway, floating on the balls of her feet. Duel fisted havoc was spewed out, chewing through the adversaries before her. She raised each weapon, so that the red target box painted her enemies, downing each terrorist tango before they could recover to their feet. She continued with a smooth strut, heading towards the stairs at the end of the aisle.

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"**Holy mother of the Goddess!"** Crimson cried, seeing the sudden flash of red dots on his sensor scope. "I hope you can _fly_ as well as you _gripe_ about stuff," He said to his sister, releasing his forefinger from the communicator's transmission button.

"Break and attack," She replied. "And while you're at it? Do me a favor and _shut up_." The two fighters separated, breaking to port and starboard. Crimson released a Nova Bomb, causing his fighter to buck ever so slightly from the force. The booster kicked in on the bomb and it jolted forward, streaking out towards the enemies orbiting the planet of Corneria. He waited until it was at ten thousand meters then detonated the explosive and punched his after burners.

The canopy of his Arwing darkened, polarizing the glass. He narrowed his eyes then went into a barrel roll, passing through the flash of light. He erupted from the other side of the blast, surprising the enemy fighters that survived the explosion. Keeping hard on his boost, two enemy fighters immediately fell into pursuit of his craft. Once Crimson felt he had enough distance between himself and the enemies on his tail, he shut down his engines and shifted hard on the flight yolk.

The Arwing did a 180, continuing backwards with the momentum. He zeroed his targeting cursor over his enemies then opened fire, tearing into their cockpits with a volley of plasma fire. Crimson followed through with the maneuver, easing back into his flight yolk and continuing the rest of the way around into a 360 then he punched his engines, reigniting them to life.

The feminine O'Donnell watched the move from high above, out the right side of her cockpit window, cracking a slight grin. "Your unorthodox method of combat flying was never taught in the Academy," Bliss noted, watching as an enemy fired a heat seeker which fell into a pursuit course behind his fighter. "Got a chaser on your 6 o'clock, baby brother."

"Who said I ever learned a 'proper technique', little sister?" Crimson countered, rolling over then breaking into the second half of a loop. A heat-seeking missile lost its trace on his fighter and re-locked itself onto a ship that he had been tailing up until now. The cylinder shaped tube streaked through the void, slamming into the engine compartment of Crimson's hotly trailed target. "See that? I use their missiles to take down their guys. I can't go wasting _every_ Nova Bomb I have, now can I?" The split-S maneuver was clean and well executed, ending with a victorious barrel roll for show.

"Where'd you learn to fly, Crimmy?" Bliss was fairly impressed, knowing he'd never flown with an instructor before.

Crimson sounded casual while flying. Not a trace of tension could be heard in his voice. "A canyon with a stolen M-Class junker. McCloud was my instructor; he learned from his parents and, later, from Peppy… then he always practiced with Bill while they were rooming together." His calm demeanor caused Bliss to see him in a different light than she was used to.

"You learned to fly like _that_ from Fox and Krystal's kid?" She asked, seeming rather shocked.

Crimson grinned. His ego was inflated, hearing his sister's tone of voice. It was obvious that he impressed her and, deep down, that fulfilled some sort of sibling rivalry need in his heart. Perhaps it was just the desire to be accepted but hearing her in a state of shock really added pride to his boosted morale. "Nah, those are moves _I_ made up; McCloud showed me the basics and how to handle a fighter and keep formation… that stupid stuff."

Bliss was pleasantly surprised but she wasn't about to be shown up, either. She was one of the highest graduating pilots in Academy history; she had no reservations to be second best behind her brother. The onyx starfighter looped about and was quick to use her blasters to corral five enemy fighters so that they came together. She then pressed a button, opening up the first of two tubes on her fighter's belly. A smart missile lanced forward with a glittery flash. The words upon the side of the missile casing read "Little Princess" and detonated with an astonishing flash.

Each of the five foes were vaporized, the explosion shimmered off of the atmosphere of Corneria creating a dazzling light show. Her proximity alarm went off, warning her of an enemy on her tail. She quickly hit the retro reverse brakes, putting her feet up on the dash to keep her from being pinned by her seat belt. Two Venom fighters raced passed the vixen, crossing into her cone of fire. Twin blasters roared to life, ripping into the engine case of each ship with ease. To finish the job, her computer's multi-lock targeted both of them and a plasmatic burst of supercharged energy split into two globs of greenish light. Each shot made their mark, lighting up the abyss with a flash of illumination. "There are only a half-dozen fighters left. Show me what you got, Crimson."

"That's strange," He said over the communicator, "You'd better check your sensors again," He added with a snarky personality quirk that rivaled her own. A small blue blip on her screen had just cut a swath through a line of 6 fighters. Seconds later, each of 6 red dots disappeared. Crimson's voice came back over the line, saying, "Now _that_ was tidy. Don't confuse me with a show off, I just get the job done _quick_ …and look great doing it."

"You like to boast a lot, too," She grumbled, unable to help a grin that was spreading across her maw.

"Only when I'm competing with you," He replied with an almost malevolent cackle. His exaggerated laughter prompted a giggle to slip from Bliss' lips. She quickly closed to channel to hide it. However, Crimson was simply delighted to hear those silvery peels of laughter coming from one of the very few members of his family that he still cared about. "Amuse you, do I?" He asked, coming to form up on her wing.

"Yeah," She returned after reopening the channel. "Why did we ever fight, Crimson?"

"It's in our family to scrap with people who don't respect us," O'Donnell told his sister. "We had a miscommunication and now we're seeing eye-to-eye again. Besides, you think I judge you for having a girlfriend. Hey, I don't care; better than me, I'm not even dating."

"That's sweet of you," She told him then added, "As long as you're not an asshole anymore then I think we'll start getting along just fine."

"Oh, so _I_ was the asshole?" He chuckled in reply. The two fighters began their descent into the atmosphere. The hulls of the silver and black ships were bathed in a scarlet glow, leaving a trail of heat in their wake. From the city below, it looked as if a shooting star had two cloudy fins trailing it. Corneria's cloudy sky opened up before the pilots and all they could see was a huge black circle hovering above the capital, blocking their view of the city. "Mother of God," Crimson gasped.

Simultaneous to his soft mutter, Bliss said in unison, "By the creator…" The horrific scene captured her breath; the footage they saw on the news couldn't hold a candle to the atrocity that lay before their eyes. "Are you sure McCloud lived through that mess?"

Crimson sighed in reply and said, "No, I'm not sure about _any_thing right now."

Another pilot swooped into the fray and opened a channel. Her stealth fighter only registered on their sensors once it came into close proximity. "Do you guys have room for company?" The feminine voice belonged to Violet Lombardi, who swooped in, forming up with them to create a triangle shape. "Hey Bliss, long time no see. Still mad at me?"

"I'd rather not talk to you," Bliss replied. "I don't care for you or your mother," She said, adding, "So what do you think of that, _tiger_?" Her chiding tones didn't scare away Violet, however.

"My mother and son are down there, somewhere. Crimson, we're all a member of the same team," She said, trying to get him to empathize with her. "My mate is your best friend."

"You broke up with him," Crimson reminded her. "When he wakes up from his coma, if he's even alive, the first thing he's going to want to do is see his kid. But yeah, we're working for the same goal… finding McCloud. So, let's go and hunt him down, we can cover more ground together."

"I really appreciate it," Violet replied, simply trying to remain friendly in the face of Bliss' antagonism.

"Meh meh meh, appreciate it mehhh," Bliss muttered over the open frequency. "Let's find a place to set down where the Government won't have a cow; I'm sure they've locked open airspace right now. You're here to look for your mother and kid; we're here to look for your Ex-Mate. See you on the ground, Violet. Bliss out." The communiqué ended.

Crimson patched through a private channel to Violet and said, "Look… McCloud would want to know his kid is okay, I'll help you find them if you help me find him. I'm putting the team first, here… before my sister. Don't go breaking my best friend's heart again or I'll be reluctant to help you again."

"Don't threaten me," Violet sighed, trying to maintain her temper. "We're a team and Star would go out of his way to make it the top priority in his life, so we should honor that by working together."

"I'll help you, relax," Crimson replied. "Just… whatever; call me Red, okay?" He closed the patch and followed Bliss to the L.Z. on the dashboard readout.

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A/N: _Virandi, Destructor, thank you guys. I'm glad for the feedback; I think it's difficult to really top chapter 13 and 14… I was in an emotional state of mind when I wrote those and I am really proud of them. But now I'm in a state of "blah" where I am really down but I'm over the hump. So I'm just kinda… I don't know. Indifferent? So, that hurts my writing. Being really happy or really sad helps me write good stuff, but when I'm balanced between, I struggle with writer's block._

_Anyway, I appreciate the feedback from you two; I'll have a new chapter for Lament Of Carmelita soon, guys… I promise! I'm just hopped up on StarFox lately, the new one just came out lol. Also, I plan to finish THE CURSE, which started as one of my favorites ;) Chapter 16 was pretty darn pleasing. I wrote it to be rich with descriptions after being ostrosized in chapter 5 of THIS story, reflections of a new generation. lol. What, have you people not read it yet:-O _

_Anyway, the last several chapters, I've tried using the "LINE" tool in the fanfiction quick edit thing. it's acting the fool or my browser is corrupted; who knows? Screw it. lol. It's fired._

_Also, I helped to edit Archangel Octavarius' chapter2 on his latest Sly Cooper story. This is where I say "go read it!" But it might not be appropriate for young eyes, lol. So you've been warned. I consider everyone a friend on fan fiction, so if you hate him, hate me, just hate one of us, or love us both, that's not my problem :) _

_At any rate, thank you for reading so far! Sorry it's been longer between chapter updates... work has been busy, I've been playing STARFOX COMMAND a lot and, uh, stuff..._

_:D Thanks for reading, gang! hugs and kisses! lol _


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter -**17**-

**Dash Bowman snatched a blaster from** the air. Marcus stood just a few feet away, his paw still extended from the underhanded toss. Bowman pivoted on his left heel then pushed the barrel directly against the temple of his adversary. The lizard narrowed its eyes and hissed, "You make a very poor steward, Ranger Bowman. The planet Venom does _not_ recognize you!" Dash brought up his left elbow, smashing the foe in the snout then he snapped his forearm forward, grasping the soldier by the neck, putting his enemy into a headlock with the weapon against the back of the reptile's head.

"I've not gone by 'Ranger Bowman' in a decade, scumbag. Andrew and the rest of the Oikonny line are idiotic failures. My mother may be the daughter of Andross Oikonny but trust me when I tell you," he paused, flipping the safety to the 'off' position. "The enemies of my enemies are my friends. Andrew _will_ die."

"The Oikonny Empire will rule Venom for_ever_!" the lizard hissed before the blaster rang out. A thick orange beam gushed out from the lizard's mouth, hitting the floor. The gaping hole in the back of his enemy's head caused a grin to cross his smallish chimp-like muzzle.

"But _you_ won't be apart of that," Dash said, dropping the body to the ground. His eyes lifted but he kept his face downwards. "Thanks," added Bowman, speaking to Marcus. "I can't believe this scumbag loser was able to disarm me of my weapon. That idiot Oikonny has a lot of nerve trying to start a civil war and wrestle away my home world." Dash's voice lifted, speaking to the rest of the people huddled inside the fallout shelter, saying, "I heard Bill Grey could be found here. Where is he?" Dash flipped the blaster back to Marcus who caught it gracefully.

"And where did you hear that from?" The voice belonged to acting General William Grey, who stepped from the crowd, narrowing his eyes at Dash.

"Why, young Beltino Toad," Dash replied, glancing up at Grey. The chimp tossed the blaster back to McCloud then said, "You know, the one who wears that ridiculous cowboy hat; grandson of Commissioner Beltino Toad. So, we finally cross paths again, Bill Grey. I've not seen you since I flew for you last, when the Anglars attacked Lylat."

"You've grown up quite a bit, Airman Dash Bowman," Bill said, approaching slowly. "Your decision to simply quit the Cornerian Air Guard came as a surprise to me; you showed great promise as a fighter pilot, son."

Dash stepped over the fallen lizard's body then said, "My decision to be left on Venom was at my request but I never asked for you to judge me, either." The entrance to the fallout shelter burst open and a pair of lizards stepped in, armed with rifles. Each weapon was tipped with a bayonet which was thrust outwards, causing the people closest to the front to back away. One of them approached Marcus and put the rifle directly in his face. The fox handed over his weapon then they moved on to the next armed person until they had complete control of the room.

"You're all under arrest," the first soldier said. He stood in the doorway, keeping his back towards the rest of the base. His counterpart walked through the shelter, securing weapons and making a collection pile. Young Jane sat down on the floor next to Marcus, putting her head between her paws to stave off the dizziness caused from the radiation sickness.

"Are you all right?" McCloud whispered, kneeling down besides her.

She gave a slight nod but kept her head lowered, just the same. "I'll be fine," she muttered softly. Marcus placed his paw atop of her head, scratching gently between her ears. One of the guards began to approach and so he stood up but when he did, he was quick to notice that he had a paw-full of her headfur. The little girl was tougher than he realized.

The approaching guard nudged her with the side of the bayonet on his rifle. "Get up," he grumbled. Marcus stepped directly in front of her so that the rifle was now brushing against his leg. "What do you think you're doing?" the guard asked, lifting his eyes to the pilot that came between the two.

The fighter pilot, still wearing his hospital identification bracelet, narrowed his gaze, his resolve showing strong. "She's not well, thanks to your bomb out there. The effects of radiation are killing people," Marcus replied, remembering what the pharmacy clerk said. "She's no threat to you, leave her alone."

The guard slowly lifted the rifle until the bayonet was against McCloud's throat. "I don't see where this is your concern, Cornerian," the lizard said calmly but with a threatening tone in his voice, attempting to intimidate the fox.

"I'm prepared to _make it_ my concern," Marcus replied. The corner of his muzzle began to tug into a slight grin, narrowing his gaze further. The sharp vertical slits of his eyes dilated just slightly, holding the Venom Guard's gaze. The flesh of his top lip began to curl, baring his teeth in a low snarl. "She going to stay on the floor and you're going to move along," McCloud told the man.

Suddenly the guard thrust the other end of the rifle outwards, burying the butt stock into the fox's gut. Marcus doubled over, leaving the guard to sneer but to the lizard's surprise McCloud had been ready for such a strike and was able to recover quickly. He jerked his head back up, catching the soldier in the jaw so hard that it knocked the lizard trooper flat onto his back.

The elite guardsman kicked his leg out and Marcus jumped over the sweep, having anticipated it. His telepathy gave him an edge in paw-to-paw combat because he was able to sense the next action of his opponent unless they happened to fight with a completely clear mind. McCloud came back down to his feet, quickly kicking the rifle out of the lizard's hand. It flew straight up into the air where Marcus snatched it, twirled it around and pointed the barrel downwards so that the bayonet stopped directly between the reptile's eyes. A momentary pause occurred then Marcus lowered the blade to the soldier's jugular.

The other lizard in the door stepped forward with a Marmoset behind him, who looked to be in charge of the situation. The monkey quietly watched the physical exchange between fox and lizard. There, in the center of the room, the lizard soldier reached up, snatching the weapon in McCloud's palms, keeping the blade away from his scaly throat. His dry, fleshy left leg lifted quickly, catching Marcus at the backside of his right knee. It caused the pilot to collapse, falling backwards.

The scrapping turned about and suddenly everyone's attention was on those two. The lizard pinned McCloud to the floor with the rifle's dagger against his chest. "I'll put this blade through your heart _then_ pull the trigger if you don't stop resisting!" He then shifted his gaze, to the skunkette sitting on the floor. "Now stand up, child!"

Marcus lifted his feet and captured the lizard's tail between his ankles then pulled his legs back down hard, yanking the lizard back so that the weapon was lifted away from his chest. He quickly rolled over onto his stomach then stood up, putting his back against the lizard's crotch and forcing the enemy up over his shoulders. Snatching the guard by his ankles, he arched his back and leaned backwards, smashing the guard back against the floor with a suplex.

The guard locked his legs around McCloud's shoulders and chest then reached down with his weapon, locking the rifle under the pilot's throat, choking him. McCloud, suddenly trapped in this position, kicked his legs to try and wiggle free but he couldn't do it. The suplex didn't stun the guard as he'd intended to do and now he had the guard on his back; he was lying on his own back, with the guard's legs locked around his upper chest with a rifle under his chin.

The guard clamped tightly around either end of the weapon using it to choke Marcus, adding more pressure in an attempt to break the fox's neck. Marcus reached his paws up, grabbing the weapon, trying to pull it away from himself but he wasn't in a position to out-power the lizard's leverage. Somewhere in the background, he could hear Jane screaming at the guard and some other commotion going on but it was all dull, muddled and fading from the lack of blood going to his head…

_"And that's when your father and I decided to Marry; you came along shortly after,_" came a voice at the back of his mind. He was looking at his mother; the vision was of a conversation he had with her when he was 15. Her face began to distort just slightly, to where he could hardly recognize her. "_You may call me KURSED,"_ she said. The reverie was wavering before his eyes. He wasn't seeing his life flash before him; no, he was seeing a hallucination inspired by deep guilt.

"_I didn't mean to hurt you," _Marcus cried to her in defense. In the physical realm, his muzzle parted, gasping for air but the wording was never actually spoken. "_You deceived me,_" he muttered to the apparition.

"_I never died by **your** paw_," she said, taking her staff from behind her back and slowly twirling it in her paws. "_I've been dead for a very long time. Dead inside! I blame your father! I buried him on Planet Kew,"_ she said. Marcus' eyes began to widen only for a pain to fill his chest. It felt as though his lungs were burning. His gaze lowered, his pupils dilating in shock. Krystal's staff extended from her paw, the end was buried in his solar plexus. His jaw parted… his mouth hanging agape. Before he could even ask why, she said, _"You can't save me, child. You can't even save yourself!" s_he roared. She then leaned close and whispered into his ear. _"I am not Krystal. I am KURSED… Your blue facial markings shame my death; you weren't strong enough to save me without a weapon because you are weak…"_ The pain suddenly dissolved without further warning.

His eyes were glassy and his lips were beginning to fade into a light blue coloration. The lizard who was strangling him was launched into the air, only adding to the vulpine pilot's confusion. Déjà vu occurred, his left and right brain playing catch up to sync themselves together, causing him to see the lizard's brain splattering into a puff of wanton gore before its bulky form was thrown to the side. The rifle was released and the fox's bodily instincts took over by drawing in a long deep gasp of air.

Oxygen flooded into his lungs and a thousand thoughts occurred all at once. He had been overpowered by an elite guard trained in combat; he never had a chance against someone who was trained in such a way… or did he? His mother would have told him to tap into the inner power of their race and pass his energy into his opponent. It would have thrown the guard clear across the room but it never occurred to him to use that ability while under the heat of combat.

The next thought to rush into his mind was to look over and make sure that Jane was safe. As he propped himself up on an elbow, his other paw reaching for his neck, he glanced over at the dead guard on the floor. His head swiveled about, seeing another dead lizard and an unconscious marmoset on the ground. Connected to the marmoset's chest was a lavender boot with a pink pinstripe that raced up the side of a _very_ tone leg. Connected to a killer set of hips and curving inwards to portray an hourglass figure, the long lean lines continued upwards to ample bust. Those swells of gaze-grabbing globes melted tenderly into a dainty pair of shoulders and stopped where the lithe neckline met a fancy looking helmet sporting a lime-green visor.

A STARFOX logo adorned the front of the helmet directly above the visor plate but his eyes couldn't help but sink once more. A second logo decorated beneath her left shoulder, beginning to lift with the swell of the chest section. It clearly identified the curvaceous, voluptuous vixen, leaving no doubt in his mind or anywhere _south_ of his heart, just who he was looking at.

The fennec vixen twirled her right pistol. She either lacked the dexterity to attempt doing it with the left or she simply didn't wish to show off by dual-twirling. She then buried both weapons into the holster sheath upon her thighs with a satisfying click, locking the guns into place. Her purple gloved paws rose to the helmet and her head lowered forth. A soft, depressurizing hiss made itself audible in a room that had been stunned to complete and total silence.

Sandy tresses of headfur, grown out from her long span of time away from the military, spilled out from the helmet, cascading over her shoulders. The visor-accentuated metal hood was drawn over the backside of her head, allowing for delicate fennec ears to protrude. She eased the helmet from her muzzle and lifted her sea-green orbs, staring directly at Marcus McCloud. Fara Phoenix stood before them, her wry smile deepened into a toothy Cheshire grin.

"I'm here to rescue you," she told the room, directing her words at Marcus McCloud. "After all… I am now part of this team as well, am I not?"

Marcus' head was clearing now that he had oxygen again. He sat the rest of the way up, saying, "You sure as hell are!" It was obvious that he was glad to see her; the excitement and relief evident in his voice. Coming to his feet, the pilot shook off the pain of the bruise at the base of his throat then stood up, completely.

Fara sauntered in his direction, sashaying her hips with every step. Her body language suggested that her next course of action was to walk right up to him and plant one on his lips but she stopped short of the team leader, dropped her paws to her hips, including the helmet in her left fist, and simply grinned. She then shifted her weight, jutting her hip out to the left, so that the helmet was nearly perched upon it. A dazzling smile graced her dainty tiers and her sure, confident demeanor caused Marcus to grin in return.

"Am I your heroine, or what?" she said to him with a wink. "Are you all right, Star?"

"I… yeah," he replied. He could fill her in on the name change later. Right now, he just wanted to get out of this fallout shelter and finish taking out the Venom patrols in this city. Dash Bowman approached, as did Bill, coming to stand besides Fara and Marcus.

Bowman was the first to speak. "You handle yourself well." His eyes raked over her form, appraisingly. Bill, on the other hand, only let his gaze flit quickly over her luscious, slender apparel before returning to her face.

The General said, "You've joined StarFox and now McCloud has you out fighting Lizards again, hmm?" He folded his arms, glad she was well. She looked damn fine for what her age should have been.

"Right where I left off," Fara mused in a pleasant retort. "There is no team without a team leader," she told the group, adding, "The radiation levels are too high for _any_ of you. I managed to make contact with Crimson and Violet and another pilot flying with them… However, I told them not to leave their cockpits; the radiation is lethal in this section of town. Instead, they zeroed in on Katt Monroe, tracked her down and are going east of town to rendezvous and pick them up. Violet should be taking her back to GreatFox as we speak, if they were able to find her and work things out with her. I'm not sure what their plans are..."

"Excellent news!" Marcus exclaimed. "We need to regroup and make a withdraw; Andrew Oikonny may have been using this strike as a diversion to overpower Corneria by taking the time to regroup before launching a full assault."

Bill was quick to pipe up, adding, "You'll have to move fast if you want to disassemble his forces. You'll need all the firepower you can get." He glanced around the room of office workers and a paw-full of civilians then reached into his pocket and discretely passed Marcus a piece of paper. "T. Beltino Toad and Vivian Hare. That's the son and granddaughter of Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare, respectively… obviously. Mister Toad is the one who sent Dash my way. They're both worthy of being called elite pilots. I couldn't imagine two finer pilots on any other team than StarFox. Assemble your crew and get started on a preemptive strike, McCloud. Your fee has been approved."

"How'd you know what I was going to ask for?" Marcus inquired, his grin returning.

"Because I don't _care_ how much you're asking for," Bill replied. "I have to get my forces in order to set up a defense perimeter and I've got to use them to protect Katina, Fichina and Corneria. My front line is far too thin to attempt an assault or to launch a counter strike, so it's up to you and your squadron. You may have to order your other pilots to hunt for Miss Hare and Mister Toad; they're on Fichina and somewhere here on Corneria and you have a short time to round everyone up and get them in gear."

"Understood …Sir. We'll get the job done," Marcus told him, offering a salute. Bill smiled slightly and returned the gesture. Both men were thinking the exact same thing: Who would have thought they would both be here in this situation less than two weeks ago? Who would have known that they would have gone from roommates to professional colleagues in such a short time, let alone at all?

"You'd make your father proud," Bill said. He then added, "Your father _and_ your mother. Peppy would be pleased as well. He and Slippy would be glad to know that you're going to look up Beltino and Vivian; they're both great pilots. Beltino flies circles around his father's piloting abilities and Vivian flies more like her grandfather than her mother. I'm not saying Lucy was a bad pilot but these two got the skill where it counts."

"Understood, General," Marcus said, his grin widening. "I'll look'em up as soon as possible. By the way sir," added the todd. "I need a guide through downtown Corneria. I want to get back to my ships as quickly as possible but downtown has been decimated."

"I'll do it," came a younger feminine voice. The group turned back to Jane, suddenly remembering that everyone here was privy to the conversation. Bill nearly blushed having allowed himself to get so caught up in that moment that he'd nearly forgotten they were standing among a room full of people. Jane Flowers finally stood up, approaching the gathering at the center of the room. "I'm capable and there's no reason anyone else in this room should expose themselves to the… "Radiation" that's out there. I've already got the poison… and detoxification is too late, I'm sure. I'm the only one qualified to do it, who happens to be in attendance. The Cornerian guards who are left upstairs are probably dead or dying. I'm your only choice."

Again, her blunt nature and painfully obvious logical reasoning shocked the adults into silence. Marcus exchanged glances with Fara and Dash, who looked over at Bill and back to McCloud. It would be a tough argument.

"Sending anyone else will be writing a death sentence," Jane told them. "I know I only have a day or two longer to live, I'm not dumb. Let me do this before I become completely helpless." Her softly spoken words lacked enunciation from the sores forming in her mouth due to the radiation poisoning. "You can placate my ego by just accepting it. But before we go… Mister Marcus, you should take Mister Dash's suggestion about utilizing the de-tox facility here in the fallout shelter, so you don't wind up like me."

"You're pretty smart for a kid," Marcus replied, walking away from the group and heading towards a computerized detoxification room at the back corner of the shelter area. Watching him walk away, Fara turned to Bill and furrowed her brow, only slightly marring her delicate facial structure with the un-dainty expression.

"Mister _Marcus_ McCloud?" she asked. Bill shrugged.

"He said he changed his name," Jane replied with a shrug. Dash walked away from the group and followed suite behind Marcus. He had no desires to become sick, either and so he headed for the detoxification center without another word.

* * *

**Vivian Hare clinched the **wrench in her paw, pushing hard on it to ensure the bolt was secure. The disc-shaped fighter upon which she sat could fly circles around Lucy's old fighter; the woman glanced up at the sky, taking a moment to remember her mother. Her opal eyes reflected the vastness of the dark obsidian above her. She would be leaving Fichina soon to join in the fight against Venom and as far as most were concerned, nobody could prepare better than Vivian Hare. 

"I'm not quite so professional," She mused to herself, grunting occasionally from the strain of trying to tighten the next bolt, "But this thing promised the kit was 'do-it-yourself'." She paused for a moment then slid her slender legs down into the engine compartment. A tuft of vanilla spilled over her forehead, partially obscuring her eyes. A casual toss of her paw restored her bangs which were moderately matted down with sweat.

"Where are the Toad family members when you need them?" She muttered softly, adding, "If I'm not careful, I'm liable to start talking to myself," She added with an airy giggle. Sinking further into the metallic vestibule, she came to sit upon a metal pipe that ported heat from her afterburners. "Okay, it's here somewhere," She whispered to herself, drawing a flashlight out of the pouch on her hip and the installation directions that were in her chest pocket. The overalls were a teal blue coloration of denim over a now-filthy white shirt. It wasn't form fitting or in anyway flattering but it certainly worked well for keeping her fur clean when working on her starfighter.

A massive upgrade from the SkyBunny ship, Vivian's JACKRABBIT was fast, powerful and fairly fearsome. Its only drawback was that it was less nimble than the smaller, lighter aircraft preferred by many pilots. It was heavier than an Arwing and had higher speeds and stopping power than a Wolfen II class ship. The light was placed over the directions and she took a moment to make sure everything was correct.

"The G-diffusing manifold routes power through the main transformer to prevent an energy flux," She read aloud, adding, "Your unit will draw power from the G-Diffuser to insure a quality concentration power source with no changing variables, yadda yadda," She skimmed through the fancy parts. Finding the spot she was looking for, she began reading again, "Make sure the timing variable grid is firmly bolted to the top of your engine mount, covering the generator housing completely… okay, did that," She continued, speaking to herself aloud. "Next, you must locate a manual jumper toggle _on_ the G-Diffuser." She paused, glancing up at the vertical unit on the side of her engine.

Once she located the toggle switches, she placed the flashlight between her teeth and drew out a screwdriver, taking a Plexiglas panel down to access the tiny box of switches. "Okay, don't screw this up," She mumbled over the flashlight in her mouth. With each word, the light bounced up and down over the component in front of her. "Why is this task such a _pain_?"

Vivian survived the attack on the Capital Dome just a few days ago. She'd read in the news that Fox McCloud's son was responsible for the incredibly low casualty number but that the mortality of his act was questionable. People of Fichina and Corneria were pleased he stopped the attacker but they were just as horrified as he was concerning the method of death and, even worse, that her DNA matched that of his own mother. She'd never met him but her mother and grandfather spoke fairly highly of the McCloud family. She was slightly weary that they were foxes but that was just natural instincts. How did her Maternal Grandfather become such good friends with a vulpine race, anyhow?

"You sonuvagun," She snapped, looking down at the instructions in her left paw. The diagram only showed 5 bars of toggle switches while her system had 6 physical switches to choose from. "Dammit; I need to get this finished if I'm going to go gallivanting around Lylat with upgraded weapons." She reached her paw between two metallic components, trying to feel her way around the engine to see if there was another side panel that might have had toggle switches just beyond her line of sight.

Her fingertips touched upon something soft making her tilt her head in curiosity. Whatever it was, the object was about as fuzzy as herself. She closed her paw around the object and began to pull it free from the two engine components. When she directed the flashlight towards her find, her heart nearly stopped.

A small, rounded animal had somehow wedged itself up in the engine compartment. Its beady eyes gazed up at her and its jaw opened, displaying a row of teeth. Before trying to bite, it sniffed then decided to become slightly more docile, wiggling about in her palm. She took the flashlight from her mouth and held it in her left paw, using it to look him over.

"How in the heck did _you_ get in my fighter?" She exclaimed, puzzled by how a domesticated pet could have gained access to her ship's interior in such a way. "Do you realize if I took off, you'd be one crispy critter?" The little puffball didn't seem to show any concern for her worry. Instead, it wiggled out of her paw and into the sleeve of her work shirt, crawling along her arm. The little rounded lump made its way up her forearm and into her overalls. "Hey now!" She laughed, "You're not my boyfriend; get outta there!" The rabbit giggled.

She reached down the front of her shirt, where the torso connected to the sleeve so that she could intersect the small animal. He was the size of her fist and between his little coal-like eyes and the rows of sharp teeth she became captivated by his adorable fluffy cuteness. "I shall dub thee… Nibbles." Why most women were easily distracted by cute little animals, she would never know. She was a tomboy like her mother and yet she wore pink flight suits and fawned over little strange animal creatures like Nibbles, here. "I've got to finish fixing my engine. Can you behave for a few minutes?" She unbuttoned the front pocket of her overalls and deposited the tiny little animal into it. "Stay put," She told him, placing the light back between her teeth.

Without warning, the flashlight simply died. Vivan smacked the useless object against the palm of her paw but the tool was simply not operational. "That's strange," She said to herself. "I know it can't be the batteries; it would go dim before it would go dead." She smacked it against the palm of her paw again then noticed that the LED indicators in the engine compartment were all extinguished as well.

Both of her ears perked up then her mind registered that gunshots were being fired on the other side of the flight deck. She leaned about to peek through the intake ports, watching as a brigade of lizards and a small group of marmosets forced their way onto the flight deck, shooting down pilots and rounding up dock workers. "Oh crap, Nibbles," She whispered. "They're taking hostages and mowing down combat fighters and guards. Looks like a suppression field at the other end of the bay; that explains the loss of power," She explained. The tiny little animal stuck its face up through the pocket in the front of her overalls, looking up at her in the dark.

The main bay doors opened and Venom fighters sat on flat bed trucks at the other end. They began to roll in, bringing in the Flea and old style fighters that seemed to have been left over from the first Lylat War. Imperial dock masters were quick to unload the fighters onto the Fichina flight deck then replace the empty flatbed trucks with the Fichinan fighter ships. It wasn't long before one of the trucks came by her fighter. The JackRabbit was hoisted up onto the flat bed and immediately transported across the runway and out into the bitter Fichina climate.

Nibbles burrowed further down into her pocket to stay warm. She knew she had a blaster in her cockpit but getting to it would be one thing and using it against a group of Venom soldiers would be something entirely different. The blistering cold was rough on a short-coat rabbit wearing only a simple pair of overalls. She leaned back against the engine, putting her feet up against the exhaust port to keep the cold air from getting in. Simultaneously, Vivian reached up and pulled the engine hatch shut. Young Hare pulled her paws to her mouth and breathed warm air into her palms, shivering slightly…

* * *

_Meanwhile, back on Corneria…_

**Theodore** **Beltino Toad eased back on the throttle** of his hover car. He was skirting the edge of the city, heading for the next town's airport to get off Corneria. He wasn't dumb; when the planet was under attack, the smart thing to do was find some help and go from there. He wasn't as big of a sissy as his father… no, Teddy had no problems getting into things he knew were over his head. That's what made life worth living.

The thing is, Corneria was nearly getting overrun from as far as he could tell. This meant falling back to Katina and arming himself. The orangish-yellow and white fleshed amphiboid was nothing like his father, in fact. The similarities were there, like always wearing a hat, but there were obvious differences as well, like when it came to a choice in covers, his father preferred a ball cap. Ted Toad was a little more rugged and his personality reflected it in all different ways; a large brimmed cowboy hat was his topper of choice and he preferred his fighters to have more power than the Bullfrog ship.

The Hover car zipped along at a high speed, taking the back roads out of the city but oddly, there was no traffic. No one else seemed to have the same idea to flee; the interstate system wasn't flooded or bogged down in any way. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact; he was alone, which mystified him. He honestly expected a lot of people running from the Capital City, especially right after Fichina's Capital Dome was destroyed last week.

Capriciously and without any possible warning, a shadow engulfed his sports car which caused the frog to lean forward over his dashboard, looking up. A Venom drop-ship was following him directly above the interstate, which caused his eyes to widen ever so slightly.

The somewhat portly frog punched the accelerator, causing the small rockets on the back of the vehicle to flair up. It was difficult to outrun a ship that was built to be fast enough to break out of the Cornerian gravitational field but he didn't want to play with these jerks either. To his surprise something thudded against the roof of his car. He swerved to the right and glanced in the left mirror, seeing a rope fluttering in the breeze which connected to the bottom of the troop transporter.

"Are ya kidding me?" He shouted, keeping his foot on the floor. The engine thrummed softly and his Hover Car's tachometer was buried into the '10'. Red lining the vehicle, Theodore evaded from left to right attempting to avoid the troops who rappelled down the cable, trying to grab hold of the hover car's roof. Toad hit the brakes, causing one of the soldiers to come directly into his line of sight, hanging from a cable.

He then floored it again, smashing into the man hard and erratically throwing the soldier up over his windshield. In his rearview mirror, he saw the lizard slam into the road, rolling over and over at nearly one hundred and thirty miles an hour. With those sharp pilot's eyes, he could see the man's arms flailing about like a rag doll.

"Damn; he's _got_ to be dead," The frog mused, quickly jerking the wheel to the right then left again, avoiding a blaster shot from another attacker. Before he realized it the road began to shift hard to the left and Theodore Beltino quickly found that he wasn't paying enough attention to his direction and speed. He swerved hard but the momentum and inertia kept the car from staying in the lines. The automobile went off the side of the road and down the side of a grassy hill. A scaly hand was seen gripping the edge of the roof on either side of his passenger and driver side windows. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a lizard was laying flat on the top of his hover car.

Young Toad jerked the wheel back to the right, causing the car to flip over almost instantly. His seatbelt tightened around his chest, holding him in place. The Hover Car's anti-gravity pads faced directly up into the air, thereby forcing the ceiling to slam into the grassy ground hard, crushing the assailant with a nauseatingly loud splattering sound. The Hover Car immediately powered down, its front end clipping a tree on the way down the hill. Sent into a spin, the vehicle swung about, causing the world to blur before his eyes.

The car passed through a guard rail, uprooting the concrete anchored metallic beam. It continued down over the side, sloshing through a wet Cliffside which was angled down at forty-five degrees. It all came to an instant stop, the front end catching on the trunk of another tree which stuck up out of the ground at the very edge of that insanely sheer drop. The front end of the vehicle crumbled causing the airbags to deploy - those thick skinned bags slammed into his face, knocking his hat clear from his head. His soft skin was buried into the airbag, friction causing first and second degree burns over the left side of his face and his upper chest. A powdery chalk immediately coated the frog who found himself pinned hard to the headrest for the longer part of what should have only been one or two seconds.

Waves from the sea crashed up against the side of the cliff, causing the hover car to creak softly, still held in place by the tree. The metal vehicle grinded against the wooden tree trunk in cadence of the splashing waves, which attacked every several seconds like clockwork. Water came in through the broken windows turning the chalky dust from the airbags into a gritty sludge, feeling much like salt on his scrapes and cuts.

The injured pilot was dazed but his training kicked in, helping him to decide his next course of action. He reached to his left elbow then did the same with his left hand, reaching to his right elbow. Deciding that his joints were all right, he ran his palm up to his shoulders then to his neck. He reached down to his legs and decided that they weren't broken either. From there, Toad began to fumble about for the door handle. He captured the lever in his hand but it wouldn't budge.

Theodore glanced over his shoulder, looking through the missing section where his back window used to be. Behind the car, both windshields, front and back, were lying in the grass near where the guardrail was once anchored into the grass. Beyond it, up on the top of the roadway, there was a pair of Venom Soldiers, a lizard and a bucktoothed marmoset. They stood tall, watching the crippled car. Toad instinctively flinched when they lifted their blasters then recoiled again when they opened fire on his inverted vehicle. Trying his hardest not to cringe, Theodore groped through the half-inflated passenger-side airbag for his glove compartment where a pistol was just beyond his reach. The blaster shots slammed into the back bumper of the hover car, causing it to slide away from the tree. Toad braced himself, still belted into the driver's seat.

The upturned vehicle went sliding down the Cliffside on its roof then slewed over the edge into a freefall, trunk first. The world around him seemed to slow down instantaneously as blue sky became all he could see over the half-deflated airbag. The swirling world outside of the windshield went from green to blue for only a few seconds but to Toad, it felt like forever. "Aw hell," Theodore muttered softly, seeing the coloration change.

The weight of the engine carried the front end around until he could see the ocean beneath himself. The briny deep reflected in his eyes for the better half of an instant before the front bumper plunged into the Cornerian Sea with the rest of the car following. Broken glass and swirling dusty plaster from the deployed airbags began to churn around him in the rush of water. Foamy white bubbles added into the mix, making it impossible to see anything but an eddy of filth.

The vortex of debris soon passed from before his eyes and the water grew clear again. Beltino could finally see in front of himself, looking all the way down to the sandy bed, dotted with underwater vegetation. The car, facing in a vertical line, continued all the way to the bottom but the descent was fairly slow. Once the crumpled bumper came to rest against the ocean floor, a cloud of sand and silt swirled up into his face. Seaweed and the like reached up through the broken windshield, stopping inches from his face.

He unbuckled his safety belt and pulled himself out of the seat. Theodore Beltino put one foot on the dashboard and pushed himself up towards the backseats. He reached his hands up and lowered the backrest of the backseats then extended his leg to stand up in the vertical vehicle. His head broke the water's surface, where an air pocket was trapped inside the trunk. Toad took a deep breath, letting his lungs fill with oxygen then sighed, trying to overcome the shock his body was going through. "This would be a lot easier if I still had the gills of a tadpole," he muttered softly. From here, his best option was to wait and make sure the Venom attackers assumed for him to have died.

Once his heart calmed, Teddy Toad knelt back down on the dashboard, feeling the center console against the small of his back. He knew the air in the trunk was the only thing keeping the car from flopping over and that the current from the crashing waves above would eventually cause it to happen; time was short. He reached to the passenger side seat for his hat, which was now half-perched on the partially deflated passenger-side airbag. Theodore snatched it with his right hand then he extended his legs again, pushing his body upwards. Toad passed through the shattered back window, careful not to cut himself on what was left of the glass around the edges.

Now free of the vehicle, he continued up then put his shoes on the back bumper. The hover car began to tilt, leaning over. With a strong push of his legs, Theodore swam directly up, away from the car. The current took him towards a sheer rock face only a few yards from where the car plunged into the water. With his hat in his right hand, Toad used his left hand to pull his shoes off. Once he was finally able to free his finned feet, the frog held his hat and shoes with his fingers and began to kick his legs, heading for the surface.

He knew he wouldn't have trouble with the Venom soldiers up on the roadside because of the way the cliff jutted downwards in a dangerous slope at forty-five degrees, then another slope, at half that angle before the straight vertical drop-off. It was unlikely that they would be able to see him so long as he didn't surface too far from the rock wall. The problem was, he didn't want to emerge_ too_ close to the Cliffside rock face lest he be pulverized by the crashing waves. Not far from the surface, he continued his upward swim only to see two dark, blurry objects above. They both crashed into the water and continued down, passing him. At a glance, he was able to discern that it was a lizard and a marmoset, each wearing Venom uniforms. Confusion set in…

He angled away from the sheer vertical wall and broke surface about one hundred yards from the granite slab. To his immediate surprise, the sun was blocked out and he found himself covered in the shadow of an Arwing. Its Retro reverse rockets were firing with redundant power throttle supplied to the front facing jets and a low throttle power was coming from the rear-facing booster. Whoever had the skill to hover an Arwing like that was obviously a talented pilot.

A head and triangular set of ears peered over the side. The canine-like silhouette disappeared then reappeared once more, tossing a bundle of rope over the side. It uncoiled in the air and the slack end splashed into the water. "C'mon!" the pilot cried. "Hurry up before Venom reinforcements show up!"

Ted wasn't one to look a gift-horse in the mouth and swam for the rope. He reached his right hand up, firmly placing the sodden hat upon his head then took the rope in his right fist, clinching the end with his heels. Toad abandoned his shoes, tossing them back into the water then he reached up and placed his left palm upon the top of his hat, holding it firmly to his head.

Once he felt secured, the frog shouted, "GO!" He clung tightly to the rope and seconds later, the Arwing's retro-reverse rockets died down allowing the fighter to pick up forward momentum. Ascending into the sky, Theodore hung from the rope, being whisked away to dry land… and to possibly greet his rescuer…

The Arwing passed over the massive spires of the famous Interstate Bridge that led into the city proper. Below, Theodore saw ground troops attacking the Cornerian Police force. The cops were unprepared to take on a military group and the National Guard was stretched too thin to provide much support. Red and green blaster flashes could be seen, between the two groups; the bridge was nothing more than an infantry battlefield.

From this height, Toad could now see the large dark gray pillar of a mushroom cloud. It flared out at the top of the cylindrical portion, simply hanging in the air. It had stretched outwards, thickening yet dissipating to some extent, but was otherwise still visible and just as hideous as when it first formed, well over an hour ago. The cloud was at least fifteen miles away, if not further. The Arwing continued on a course, heading away from the city, leaving it all behind.

Two other fighters came alongside of the first, joining on the right and left. One of them was another Arwing but the other looked more like a remodeled Wolfen-I from the original Lylat Wars. The second Arwing moved from its adjacent spot to a position beneath the first giving Theodore Beltino Toad the ability to see into the cockpit. Violet Lombardi, someone he knew but never formally met, looked up at him for a moment then opened her canopy. The glass half-bubble slid backwards on rails until it partially covered the armored hull behind the cockpit.

"We're going to have to perform an in-air transfer of ship; we won't be landing!" she shouted over the ambient roar of the wind. "We're here on behalf of StarFox and we were dispatched to find you. I have room if you sit behind me, just be careful; it's a long drop if you slip!" She eased back on her flight yoke until the hull of her fighter was about a meter beneath his feet.

"This is an awkward way to meet the daughter of Falco Lombardi!" Theodore replied, shouting over the wind and the triumvirate of engine screams. "You guys went through all that crap just to find _me_?"

"What crap?" she hollered back. "You mean those two Venom slugs who ran you off the road, back there? That was par for the course; are you ready to see some _real_ action?" She was still partially angry that she had been ordered to break off her search for her mother and son but she now knew that if she didn't, this man might have been killed. She offered a bit of a smile, trying to show him that she had spirit as a fighter pilot to back her words but her heart was only half engaged to _this_ rescue attempt. Then again, the life of Slippy Toad's son _was_ on the line, here.

"That's the 'crap' I was referring to, yes!" Toad shouted back. He reached his left foot out, trying to touch her hull. She eased back on the flight yolk again and after a moment, his foot touched her hull. Slowly but surely, he hull-walked the nosecone of her fighter, keeping his right hand securely on the rope. His left palm remained on his rapidly drying hat, which flapped in the high wind; the brim acting as a sail in some way. Deciding better on the situation, he pulled the hat from his head and gripped the brim in his mouth then wrapped his left hand around the rope, as well.

Turbulence caused her fighter to shake slightly beneath his feet. It affected the Arwing above him as well, causing the rope to jerk him about just slightly. His left foot brushed against the edge of her open cockpit; the canopy was slid back on rails, extended to the open position. "Almost there," she called up to him. "Come on, you can do it. Don't look down, you'll be fine!" She wanted him to hurry so she could return to searching for Katt and little Falco but she didn't want to throw that at him right now.

Theodore reached up and took the hat out of his mouth for a moment then said, "I'm not afraid of heights; I'm a pilot for crap-sake. This turbulence isn't making it easy, though!" He stuffed the brim of the hat back into his mouth then recaptured the rope. He tucked his legs underneath himself then kicked forward, trying to swing his body over her head, aiming to get himself into the back seat.

The constant shaking of the fighter caused the rope to jerk away from his hands halfway through the swinging maneuver and he felt himself begin to fall again. His hands reached out and his eyes clinched shut. Fingertips snagged the metallic rim around the edge of her cockpit and somewhere in the back of his mind he thought he heard her gasp. His stomach slammed against the hull of her fighter and his feet dangled hundreds of feet above the open Cornerian Sea.

Something solid touched the bottom of his feet, prompting him to try and look down over the hat he still had stuffed in his mouth. The stabilizer of the wolfen-like fighter was extended to allow him to stand and the proximity of the two fighters made it obvious that this was a dangerous stunt. Theodore pulled at the cockpit, standing on his tippy-toes on Bliss O'Donnell's stabilizer wing.

"Just drop the hat and climb up here!" Violet shouted over the side, keeping her paws on the flight yolk to steady the craft. Toad had no plans to lose his hat; he tapped into his adrenaline and struggled, pulling himself up the side of her hull, using the Wolfen's stabilizer to boost himself upwards. Slinking over the side of the open cockpit, Toad climbed in behind her seat, sinking down into the half-covered chair that faced towards the back of the fighter.

A group of navigation controls surrounded the secondary chair as well as a flat panel monitor with a chart of Lylat shown on the screen. He wiggled his way down into the seat then adjusted the seatbelt, pulling it over himself. The canopy began to slide forward, humming softly. It followed the tracks of its rails until it clicked shut. A hiss of pressurized air could be heard then fresh oxygen filled the cockpit. His adrenaline rush kept him calm for another moment then the cycle came to an abrupt end, leaving him to feel queasy.

"That was pretty close," Lombardi said with what sounded like a sigh of relief. Beltino took the hat from his mouth and replaced it upon his head. It was nearly dry from the high wind but was still damp, otherwise. The proximity alarm was still droning in the background from the closeness of Bliss' fighter. The Wolfen began to maneuver away and the alarms went quiet.

Finally, the young man took a long deep breath and said, "I like action but… I think I've had enough for today. I'm Ted; Theodore Beltino Toad at your service. To what do I owe the honor, Miss Lombardi?"

"McCloud told us to come pick you up," she explained, adding, "You were the only one in the city bold enough to leave after the first wave of Venom scum declared marshal law. We used General Grey's help along with ROB up on the GreatFox II to find you in time… You're lucky to have survived that crash… about as lucky as we were to be able to access a weather satellite and use it to find you on the run… technically it was ROB that tracked you down but anyhow. Like I said, you're lucky to have survived that crash. I'll be honest," she added at the end, her voice quickly changing to something a little more _accusing_ in tones. "I had to abandon my search for my mother and son when ROB reported that you were in the area, identified by satellite, and that you were being tailed by a Venom transporter."

Ted opened his mouth to reply but as she droned on, he simply decided to remain quiet. Once she got to the part about her son, he decided that there was nothing further to say at the moment. There was an awkward silence then he summoned the courage to speak again and said, "Maybe when all this blows over, I can help you find them. I mean, it's my fault you had to break your search, really." In this way, he _was_ a bit like his father, always wanting to help even if it meant putting other things aside. After all, it was Slippy Toad who wanted to put fighting Anglars before his own fiancée, Amanda.

She ignored his offer and reverted to the initial topic of conversation about his crash. She was trying to stay professional and express concern towards his near death situation so that she didn't come off as belligerent. "You flipped over," Violet noted, adding, "You hit a tree then fell almost two hundred feet. That water should have smacked you in the face so hard that you wouldn't have known what hit you. How in the world did you survive it? Not to mention you were down there for a damn long time, even for an Amphibian." Now she debated in her heart whether she made the right choice or not but, knowing her resourceful mother, she was fairly sure that Katt and little Falco were safe… at least she hopped that they were.

"There was an air pocket in the trunk," Ted replied. "Not to mention, a pillow of Vectran and Nylon filled with air which covered my face; attached to the steering wheel, it pretty much stayed in place and protected my ugly mug during impact. Keep in mind, however, it felt like getting punched in the mouth twice but I can't argue: I'm alive. My insurance company is going to freak out but I don't care; I guess airbags are worth the hill of beans it costs to install'em huh?" He felt partially grateful that she reverted the topic to stay civil.

Lombardi chuckled softly, honestly glad he survived. Reverting to a semi-airy tone helped put him at ease about the guilt he felt for interfering with her search for her mother and son. He could only imagine that it was hard for a young mother to put work and duty before family. "Mister Toad, believe me… Insurance is the least of your worries; I would hate to be an insurance company after today. Two thirds of the Capital City was demolished by a super heated shockwave; nearly every car in the city was burned to a crisp or simply disintegrated. Where is your ship? …And incidentally, what does a _hill of beans_ mean?"

"My ship is on Katina," Ted replied. "The Dragonfly is no Lilly Pad; it has a multi-lock plasma canon that puts dad's 'Bullfrog' to _shame_. Oh, and '_a hill of beans_' in colloquial Cornerian is a symbol for something of trifling value." He paused, wondering where to go with the conversation from this point. After another moment of awkward silence, he asked, "So, you guys fly for StarFox?"

"Yeah," Violet replied. "Fox and Krystal McCloud's son continued the team. He and I… we're reconciling mates. Then there is the guy who scooped you out of the water; he is the team's ...uh... _ace_ pilot, Crimson O'Donnell. The pilot who risked her ship to put a wing beneath your feet a few minutes ago… that's his sister, Bliss; she's not actually on the team. I'm Violet Lombardi and you'll meet McCloud soon enough. He also plans on tracking down a hare on Fichina and then… I suppose that the team is going to formally ask you both to join."

"Understood. So where is this McCloud guy?" Ted asked. "I owe him for sending good pilots to come fish me out of the Cornerian Sea. What can I say? I appreciate the lift." Practically back to back, Toad drew his hat back from his head to fidget with the brim for a moment. It was still fairly damp but after the air-to-air transfer, it was less sodden than it was earlier.

"My pleasure," said the hybrid feline. Her angel-like wings were folded behind herself in a specially made seat. Theodore adjusted his seatbelt, making it a bit more comfortable, then he leaned back in the seat and sighed, glad it was all over. Violet paused then asked, "So what do you think about this attack on Corneria?"

Her attempt at conversation was appreciated. Ted thought about her question then said, "I feel lucky to have escaped the city. I feel lucky that my family name and my piloting got me netted from the Sea… I am glad I didn't get thrown up against the rock face by powerful waves. I'm glad that… I don't know, I guess I should also say that I'm glad StarFox would have an interest in my flying. How'd you guys hear of me, anyhow?"

Violet's reply was simple. "General Bill Grey gave us your business card. You know him? Dash Bowman also highly recommends you."

"The General and Mister Bowman recommend me, huh? Nice touch," Ted mused softly. "Bill's a good guy, I'm glad someone put him in command; that's one hell of a jump, though: …Major to General. Dash Bowman, well… He's a weird guy but, he was shot down over Katina and I brought him here, which is how I wound up on Corneria, away from my arsenal. Anyhow, are we going to meet Mister McCloud back on Katina when we go to get my stuff?"

Violet shook her head, although Toad couldn't see it, in the seat facing away from her cockpit seating. "No, we're going to rendezvous on the GreatFox-II and go there together. I understand your father lived on that ship for a while. Have you ever seen it?"

"No, I can't say that I have," Ted answered with a slight shrug. "I saw pictures of the GreatFox _Carrier_ used in the Anglar War but not GreatFox II. StarFox was pretty big for a while there; two ships and a list of pilots including my mother _and_ father… Fox McCloud was a veritable Admiral of his own private armada. And, Miss Lombardi, if I may… _we_ can continue the search for your mother and son."

Once more, she ignored his offer, putting on a professional face. She would personally tend to that matter as soon as she returned to GreatFox to refuel. "I read about that somewhere," Violet replied, adding, "I see the GreatFox II sitting on the screen; I guess the first wave of Venom's front line have dissipated to the point where it must be safe up there, right now." She punched her afterburners leaving Bliss and Crimson to play catch up. She was in a hurry to return to the ship so she could get back to searching for her family, alone.

* * *

**Dash Bowman** paced the flight deck in quiet contemplation. Two Arwings and a modified Wolfen fighter set down on the flight deck, condensation quickly beading up on their hulls having passed into a pressurized atmosphere. Fara Phoenix's starfighter sat on the other end of the deck next to Dash's ship. Marcus' Arwing was up in the loft sling, ready to launch but he was nowhere to be found. 

Crimson climbed out of his cockpit and slid down to the floor without the aid of a stepladder. "Where's Star?" he asked of the chimp-faced gentleman.

Bowman turned about, facing O'Donnell. "He's fighting off the effects of the radiation; he'll be fine and will make a full recovery but he required rest. Also, he has changed his first name to Marcus. There is a little girl in the sickbay area named Jane Flowers. Give her a wide birth, she's dying; there was no time for detoxification and she doesn't have long to live."

"And Fara?" Crimson asked.

"I'm not her keeper, I do not know," Dash replied, returning to his pacing. "Did you find the frog?"

"Yeah, we got'em. I'm going to go check on '_Marcus_'," Crimson said, then added, "Make yourself at home on _our_ ship, dude." He turned towards the Wolfen, watching his Sister disembark from her craft then announced, "I'm going to get some stuff done. Feel free to explore the ship, Bliss. Don't get into a fight with Violet and don't talk to The Dinosaur." He headed through the double doors at the far end and was gone.

"The …_dinosaur_?" Bliss asked.

"You don't want to know," Violet grumbled, spreading her wings and dropping from her fighter to the ground. "He's an annoying, spoiled only-child whose family ran Sauria and now he thinks he's beyond scolding …especially when he needs it most." Behind her, Theodore Beltino Toad slid off the side and dropped to the ground, his bare feet making a wet slapping sound against the flight deck.

"The Dinosaur formally known as Prince?" Teddy asked, turning to face them. "Tricky is the king of Sauria now, right? What's the king of the dinosaurs doing here?"

Violet lifted a paw, palm up, and shrugged. "Apparently he thinks he is doing a service to Lylat by gallivanting around with StarFox."

"I've never met him but I've heard stories," Theodore noted, approaching Bliss and offering a handshake. She was reluctant at first but finally placed her paw into his. He took his hat off with his other hand then placed it over his chest, tilting his head down and forward. "Thank you for helping me back on Corneria, ma'am."

"Sure. Be glad the stabilizers on my ship fan out so high in the back," Bliss replied, staying concise. She released his fleshy orange hand then turned towards Dash. "What the hell are _you_ doing here? Shouldn't you be on Venom trying to wage war against your family members for control of that piece-of-shit planet?"

The Steward of Venom narrowed his eyes. "Get off my case, child of O'Donnell," Dash snapped.

"Can we _not_ fight?" Violet asked. "I'm going to give Mister Toad the Grand Tour and feed the Pest," she said, referring to Tricky. "Then I'm leaving to attend to a personal matter. Let 'Marcus' know that I'm off looking for _his_ son, since he's too busy with his team to do it himself." She waved her paw in a dismissive manner then she and Theodore left the flight deck, leaving Bliss and Dash to eye one another.

"So," Dash muttered, trying to be pleasant. "You saved the frog with your stabilizers? That's …pretty clever."

"Your mom is '_pretty clever_'," Bliss grumbled in reply. Dash cocked his eyebrow, not understanding her sense of humor.

* * *

_**"Falco? Are you sure this is a good idea?" **The voice posed a very reasonable question to a very irrational man. _

_"I'm the one who is flying, you just do your job, frogface," the avian snapped in reply. "Trust me, Slippy; you'll go home to your kids on Aquias and Lucy will see her daughter and her father again, if the old man is still around… lord knows, he's a million years old… And Fox and Krystal will go home and see Star and I'll go home and call Katt and see Violet. Everyone will be happy." He ruffled his feathers then stormed back across the flight deck of GreatFox Carrier. _

_"Star?" The voice belonged to someone who wasn't a part of this dream._

"Go away, Red. I'm exhausted; I changed my name to Marcus," the fox replied in a deep, groggy voice. He began to slip back into the dream almost instantly. _Falco Lombardi turned back towards the flight deck, held his left and right feathery hands up, as if squaring up his fighter for a future photograph. _

_Falco was pleased; he was ready to get this mission over with and enjoy Lylat again. "Hell yeah, I'm going to break through that barrier today and we'll get the entire ship back to the other side. I'm tired of sitting on my ass-feathers; this freakin' system sucks, man. It's going to feel DAMN good to be home!" _

_"It's still dangerous," Fox said, approaching the amphibian and avian. "If you die in this attempt, think of your daughter, man. She's drinking age by now; you've always said you wanted to knock back a beer with your kid and talk about sports. Last time I saw her, she was kicking a football barefooted… and doing it further than most people. She was belching her alphabet. You're a proud dad; don't kill yourself doing this wormhole experiment." _

_"Yeah, I hear you; just the same, she's also one of those women who clean up well. Hell, she's beautiful," Falco said. "Hey McCloud, do me a favor…" _

_"Go on," Fox replied. _

_Lombardi said, "Remember this conversation when we're drunk at our homecoming party." Falco gave his standard cocky grin then cocked his head to the door, seeing Krystal, Amanda and Lucy step into the room. "Hey girls, I was just celebrating my imminent success. Have you two come to witness history being made?" _

_"Falco, I'm telepathic, not psychic, but my woman's intuition…" Krystal trailed off, shaking her head slowly. "I sense you've already made up your mind and I can feel that you're not going to let me or Lucy talk you out of this stunt. Please, be careful and don't be selfish. If you see a metaphorical fork in the road, play it safe please." _

_"You too huh?" Falco asked of Lucy. The hare nodded slowly then waved the entire group over to a screen that was mounted on the flight deck bulkhead. They gathered around and she activated the screen, showing a diagram of the wormhole. Falco cleared his throat and asked, "Now what are we lookin' at here? Don't worry, you've got my attention, I know I have to fly that thing." _

_"Yes," Lucy replied. "You certainly do. Every few moments, the vortex current changes direction. It could throw you into a galaxy we know nothing about if you don't time everything just right." _

_Falco nodded in agreement then said, "That's why we agreed that I should fly it. I've got the best natural aviation timing. Now, you said earlier that I'll be able to see the shift when it happens? It's going to be a swirling clockwise thing then when it's going the other direction, it all swirls counterclockwise? But the question is, how much debris will be in that tunnel?" _

_Lucy, glad he was actually taking an interest in this before flying it, said, "It's not a black hole. It's not a current of gravity so we shouldn't have a bunch of junk being sucked through that corridor. However, that isn't to say that things haven't floated into the wormhole on the other end and are just sitting in there, floating motionlessly. Sounds like you were listening when I explained the coloration current, so just slow down when it goes counterclockwise, then punch your afterburners when it shifts back to clockwise. It will shift every thirty seconds. If, for any reason, you need to return, punch your booster just as the shift is beginning to change and you'll wind up back in this time-space. Thirty seconds isn't long considering the length of the flight should last twenty-seven seconds from start to finish. So just be careful, okay?" _

_"Jeeeze Laweeze," Falco roared, throwing his hands up into the air. "I heard you the first time you explained this; I'll time it right and I'll time it when the change is in the right place. And as many times as you and Slippy forced me to watch the footage from our blackbox recorder taken the night we wound up here… I KNOW there will be debris which will undoubtedly make the travel time longer than twenty-seven seconds! I'm all over it, just let me fly the damn thing!" _

_"Sounds like you've studied this mission," Lucy said. "I really expected you to say 'shut up with the semantics, I'll figure it out when I fly.' But, Falco, I'm proud of you. Good luck; if you make it across, the data collected by the probe will give us the information we need to follow you. If anything goes wrong, well… give Vivian a hug for me." She approached the swarthy cobalt falcon and placed a gentle kiss upon the side of his beak. "Don't die, Mister Lombardi. I mean it." _

_"D'aww," Falco chuckled, patting Lucy on the face. "We were lucky to have an Astrophysics professor here or we'd be stuck in this stupid system forever. All right," Lombardi turned to Fox and the two exchanged a manly handshake only for Fox to tug at his friend's hand, drawing them together in a gentlemanly hug. "I'm not going to but… if I were to die, you take care of that vixen," he shifted his eyes to Krystal then looked back to Fox. "And … yeah, whatever; I'm not good at mushy stuff. Let's get this mission over with already." _

_Amanda offered Falco a soft smile. "Tell Theodore that we'll be home soon. Please, be very careful, Falco."_

_"Take care of yourself," Krystal said, reaching to fluff his headfeathers. "You can always come back if something happens. We can always make use of the information gathered by the probe and find a safer way if things go wrong." _

_Falco chuckled then hooked a thumb back at his Sky Claw fighter. "I know, I know. Something tells me I'll fly this more than once. I'm not saying that I'll fail my mission but I do have a gut feeling that it'll be two strikes before we hit a homerun. All right, let's play ball." He turned towards his fighter and began to strut towards it. "The first thing I do when I get to the other side… I'm going to look up Katt Monroe and I'm going to pin her up against the wall and I'm going to –" He suddenly found himself interrupted by a loud shout. _

_Krystal's voice was scolding; she hollered, "Falco! Don't you dare finish that sentence!" _

_Everyone on the flight deck glanced back at Krystal in astonishment then looked back at Falco, bemused. Obviously the telepath knew what was on his mind and she looked as though she were a soccer mom who just walked in on her kid watching pornography. Lombardi threw his left arm up, approaching his ship. "Relax, sister. We're seperated but damn if we aren't still tied together by marital vows, after all." _

_"Not the point," Krystal said. "There's a time and a place to talk about that sort of thing, Mister Lombardi. Just fly your mission, hornball." _

_"Whatever," Falco chuckled, glancing over his shoulder at the crew. He began to ascend the ladder, mounting up for his mission. _

_"Whatever," Krystal repeated, rolling her eyes. "Just come back in one piece, please. We don't have a real doctor and I'm a healer not a surgeon." _

_"Don't screw up like I did," Fox said, lifting his bionic paw and wiggling the fingers on it. "Corneria's finest made this for me but I don't know how well Slippy will be able to build something for YOU." _

_"Yeah, yeah… you're all being extremely morbid," Falco scolded them then chuckled to show he was having a good sense of humor about it. "Let's do this thing," he said then slid the rest of the way into the Sky Claw and pulled the canopy down overtop of himself. _

_The ship rushed forth, launching from the deck. Slippy turned to the group and shook his head. "I'm just a machinist but you all heard Lucy, earlier, when she said that first-time success rating is evaluated somewhere around fifteen percent. I'm going up to the bridge with Amanda; we'll monitor his status and let you know if Fox has to go after him. Stay ready on the deck, Fox," He added, turning to McCloud at the last moment. Fox nodded then walked over towards his Arwing III, prepping himself for a rescue launch, just incase. _

_Falco's fighter passed through the main bay doors and his booster flared up, projecting him forth into deep space. The wormhole was open off the port bow and he arced about, heading towards it. "Making my descent," he replied into the radio. The fighter looped about, snatching up one of the two probe buoys with a metallic field built into his ship. It followed him, heading towards the wormhole. The other probe remained several hundred meters from the portal's entrance point. _

_His ship disappeared into the colorful field with the buoy in tow. His signal was garbled and weak, inside the Wormhole. "This is Falco..." His voice was static-laced at best over the transmission line. "I'm coming to an All Stop and I'm going to time the intervals between the changes. Stand by." The line went silent. _

_Fox remained back on the GreatFox Carrier flight deck but the rest of the StarFox crew went back towards the bridge to monitor Falco's progress. _

"Marcus, do you feel all right?" came another voice that did _not_ belong to this dream. It sounded like Dash but he couldn't be certain. The voice possessed a certain gruffness to it but he was too groggy to be sure.

"I'm fine, just let me sleep," McCloud said. He still felt exhausted and part of him wanted to finish the dream he was having, just to see how it turned out. "Falco could die at any moment," he added, leaving his visitor perplexed. "Furthermore, I'm dog-tired. The team is watching to see if he'll succeed." On the last spoken word, Marcus trailed off into a mumble, falling back into a state of slumber. In his reverie, he could see what was happening to Falco's ship, even though it was just a dream to him.

_Lombardi's Sky Claw raced through the warren of light which shimmered around him. He expertly maneuvered about the space debris, consisting of battleship hulls and large rocks then darted back towards the exit at the end of the tunnel. "Twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five," he counted aloud. Suddenly the portal at the end began to shimmer. "Twenty-six; I-see-the-exit, it's-lighting-up," He said, rapidly spitting out his words, as if trying to get them in between the cadence of his counting. "Twenty-Seve – oh shi-." The Sky Claw raced into the exit just as a massive asteroid was beginning to emerge from the other side. _

_The fighter slammed into the behemoth rock straight on, crushing the nosecone back towards the cockpit like an accordion being closed all the way. The starboard section of his fighter collapsed and his beak dropped wide open to shout. A section of his cockpit twisted, warping around his body. The metallic cockpit crushed around his leg like a tin can, severing his right knee from the rest of his body. The asteroid was pushed back through the portal due to the collision but it threw the timing off, slowing the Sky Hawk to a very dawdling pace. _

_The swirling current of the vortex began to shift hard as they passed through, ejecting half the asteroid and the damaged fighter back into the time-space in which it started. Powered down, the fighter drifted towards the GreatFox Carrier. McCloud's Arwing launched immediately, going to retrieve Lombardi's fighter. He wasn't dead but Falco already knew that he lost everything below his right knee. His feathery blue knuckles were tight around the flight stick, which caused his blood pressure to become worse. _

_Suddenly, Krystal's image appeared on his dashboard. She could feel exactly what he was going through and she sounded to be rather winded from having gasped so deeply, when the incident happened. "Relax your body!" she demanded. "If you don't, you'll bleed to death! Relax your body, do it now! I mean it; you'll die otherwise! We'll be down to meet you on the flight deck! Please stay calm and relax your body! Take your belt off and tie it tightly around your thigh to slow the flow of blood! I know you're probably in shock but I need you to listen to me and stay calm!" _

_Falco's image appeared on the bridge and he looked directly across the group, his eyes stopping on Krystal. "Shut the hell up for a minute, would you?" he said, grinding his beak from the pain. "I know what I have to do," he told her, reaching for his blaster. Lucy's eyes widened but Krystal knew his intentions and nodded in reply. _

_"Very resourceful, Falco. Be careful doing it, though," she continued much to Falco's dismay. _

_"You're a great girl and all," Falco said, trying not to hyperventilate, "But for a moment, just be quiet. Just tell me Fox is on his way and everything will be fine; **I** am fine, okay? Just… hush for a second." He closed the transmission then placed the blaster against the bottom of his right thigh, brushing the barrel against the patella of his knee. The anthropomorphic avian tried to lift his right leg but the metal section had cut cleanly through his leg just beneath his knee. "This is not good," he muttered, powering up the blaster and changing the width of the beam. "This is going to hurt like hell," he told himself, placing the blaster against his knee and closing his eyes… he knew what he had to do… _

_If he didn't cauterize the wound, he would bleed to death. An unfitting end for any combat pilot, to be sure. "Falco, this is Fox," said a voice over his radio. "Just sit tight, I'm going to tractor you back to GreatFox. Sit tight, it won't be long." The Sky Claw shuttered, coming under the influence of a tractor beam. _

_Falco shook his head slowly and said, "It's now or never…" He glanced down at the barrel once more, which was just beneath his right knee. He shut his eyes one more time then… he pulled the trigger. _Marcus McCloud sat up in the sickbay bed, screaming in pain. He released his breath from his lungs until there was nothing left. He sat there, panting for a moment. The fox reached for his right knee but it was there and unharmed. He used his left paw to reach for the light, illuminating the medical lab.

"By the creator," he muttered to himself, wording his thoughts out loud. "What an awful dream. I don't remember that happening in the past; what has me dreaming about Violet's father? Am I especially worried about him for some reason or another? I'm not married to Violet; I wonder why I dreamt that?"

His heart was pounding and his fur was matted down with sweat. He finally said, "It was just a dream, McCloud. Nobody is dead, stop worrying yourself." He flopped back on the medical bunk and sighed, willing his body to calm down.

* * *

**The chill's harsh bite** was becoming quite the ward on her physical form. Exhausted and freezing cold, Vivian was aching all over and didn't want to stay in her fighter much longer. She knew she'd freeze to death if she didn't figure out what to do soon. The suppression field kept her ship's main power cell from activating the anti-freezing engine heater which she _would_ have used as a source of warmth. However, without battery power, she was freezing her powdery cottontail right off her butt. 

Nibbles wiggled up through the top of her overalls pocket and looked at her in the dark. Her face was somewhat illuminated by the lighting that got into the engine compartment from between her feet which only blocked out a fraction of the light coming in through the intake port built into the side of her hull. Occasionally, she could see a lizard guard walking a patrol around the line of Cornerian fighters sitting out in the snow. She watched through the cracks of light between her feet, keeping very still so as not to get spotted.

Part of her wanted to simply hop out and surrender to get into a jail cell where it would be warmer but having seen some of the combat pilots getting shot earlier, she didn't want to take her chances. With overalls, she could have passed for a mechanic but Vivian Hare wasn't about to take any risky chances with her life. It had been a solid four hours in the cold and the engine was building frost on the generator and main turbine.

"You must be hungry," she whispered to the little animal. It burrowed back into her chest pocket for warmth, shivering gently against her chest. "That's right," She said with a joking air, "Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow." Even in a tight situation, what else was there to do but stay in a positive mood?

Without warning, the fighter jolted forward. The flat bed truck it was on began to move forward, giving her some measure of hope that they might be taking her to a hanger bay of some sort. She couldn't have been more wrong. The Jack Rabbit fighter came to a stop once more and Venom guards mounted the flatbed, un-strapping the fighter from the transport truck. They pushed it over the icy flat bed and it slid with ease, plopping into the soft snowy blanket of fluffy powder that layered the planet in this region.

"This could get ugly," she whispered to the shivering animal. "I'm thinking surrender might not be a terribly bad idea. Hot meals, a bunk and some inmates to talk to… I'm sure they're using war-time convention rules; I doubt Andrew would let himself be hanged as a war criminal when he loses yet again."

Nibble chirped in agreement… or rather, he chirped just to acknowledge that he was spoken to. She placed her left paw over the lump in her pocket to help keep him warm. His tiny heart was pounding but it calmed slightly with her touch. "I can't be sure if it's the right decision; they may leave this site soon which would mean I only have a few minutes to decide on surrender or if I want to tough it out and try to start my ship when they turn their backs. I hope it starts, the cold is hard on engines like this."

Suddenly the canopy of her fighter could be heard opening. Guards shouted to one another in Venom's native tongue then she heard footsteps across her icy hull. The engine compartment was pulled open and she winced, having two rifles pointed into her face. She lifted her paws slowly and, in her best attempt at the little Venom she knew, said, "I surrender, um… take me… to your leader?"

A third guard knelt down to one knee, reaching a paw in to her. "Come with me," the marmoset said in Cornerian vernacular with a satisfying upper hemisphere dialect. His pleasant patois caused her to shutter. Her paw lifted into his palm and he pulled her up from the engine hatch. "If you resist you'll be shot, I'm afraid. Please, do behave? Come with us, luv." He withdrew his paw from hers then placed it at the small of her back, guiding her forward. She walked carefully across the icy hull of her fighter, coming to stop in front of a step stool.

A group of lizards were waiting for her, armed to the teeth and ready for her to try anything funny. She kept her paws lifted, placing her palms upon her head. Her ears lay flat, following her headfur which was short save for a tuft of vanilla bangs. Once she was on the ground, a blaster rifle's barrel touched her lower back, guiding her forward. What else could she do except to be escorted by the guards?

* * *

A/N: _Neat? I hope this chapter was paced well :) Thanks for reading! Chapter 18 will be up soon! And by all means, remember September 11th on this day. _

_Take care, friends!_


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: _Some of you noticed that I posted a prologue to one of my older original fictions in my profile. I started on that in 2003 and it's a 400 page beast now. For those of you who wrote me a PM to discuss it, THANK you! It's just how I felt when we invaded Iraq, you know? Your concern, praise and critique really mean a lot! Now, on with the show! I'm sure some of you are curious to see how Panther will play into this chapter. Let's find out, shall we?

* * *

_

Chapter -18-

**A week passed** and Vivian Hare found herself on the worst hellhole in Lylat. She was kept as a prisoner in a makeshift Venom concentration camp in a fenced-in pen in the burned out remains of the Fichina Capital Dome. The entire downtown area was converted to a large holding cell for captured prisoners - civilian and military alike.

She fed Nibbles scraps from her food rations to keep him healthy but people were starting to eye the animal she kept in her pocket in a way that made her nervous. It wasn't bitter cold like it was outside the dome in the harsh wind, but the deserted city was still far colder than a jail cell. Venom troops wearing thick parkas and gortex clothing patrolled the parameter outside of the pen, occasionally antagonizing their hostages.

"You're the lady with the animal right?" Vivian turned around to face a chinchilla with sunken eyes. "I'm starving, lady. People have been taking my food and one tried to kill me for my fur because it's softer than most; I just want something to eat… please, I know he's small but…"

"Forget it," Vivian grumbled, narrowing her eyes. "Offer to be a living blanket for a meal or something, don't go trying to take Nibbles or we'll have trouble."

A badger approached from behind Vivian, placing a strong paw on her shoulder. "Just hand over the animal, woman. _Nobody has to get hurt_." Hare placed her filthy left paw over her soiled overalls, covering the front pocket where the animal was hiding. It could sense the tension in the air and she could feel against her palm that it was shivering against her chest.

Young Hare turned about to face the man, mocking him by repeating his words back to him. "Back off; _nobody has to get hurt_," She replied in a soft, almost monotone voice.

The man narrowed his eyes with a threatening demeanor. "Lady you're going to do this the easy way or the hard way; there are starving people here," The badger retorted.

"You're selfish," Vivian said. "You want it for yourself. You're not here to feed your starving child or your wife; you want him before _this_ guy gets him," She added, hooking her right thumb over her shoulder to the soft-furred chinchilla with the sunken, sad looking eyes.

The badger balled his fists up, grinding his teeth, stifling his rage. "Give me the goddess-damned rodent or I'll break your neck, lady."

Vivian held a tone of challenge in her voice. "Then what? Eat _me_? You going to break my neck, eat my pet, and then eat the remains of another sentient being? Isn't cannibalism against the Galactic law?"

"There are starving people here!" The man shouted.

"I'm ONE OF THEM!" Vivian snapped in return, still gently cupping the creature in her chest pocket. "Go on about your business, sir; we're in this together but if you come at me, I _will_ defend myself."

"Don't even _think_ about sleeping," The badger warned, storming off in anger.

"And you?" Vivian said, turning towards the Chinchilla. "My grandmother was the nicest, sweetest woman who ever died from illness; my mother was a school teacher… But I assure you this: I am _not_ a pushover no matter how much I may look like one."

"Your grandfather was General of Corneria when I was a teenager," said the Chinchilla with a soft sigh. "I have a photographic memory; watch your back, that guy is trouble. He's stocky in stature and he uses it to push other inmates around the pen."

She nodded to his statement about Peppy Hare then said, "He's not been taking food from others has he?" She asked, glancing back over her shoulder at the departing Badger.

"Eh…" The soft-furred gentleman lowered his gaze. "I don't know about others but he's done it to me twice already."

Hare tightened her jaw. "You can stay around me if you want but don't even so much as eye my animal. Nibbles is not food," She told the man. "What's your name?"

"Zaphyl…or just Zaph, if you prefer," He replied. "No offense but… you've been marked by that guy. Hanging around you is practically suicide. Don't be insulted if I avoid you all together."

"That's fine, Zaphyl," Vivian mused with an airy wave of her paw in dismissal. "I'm not insulted by your shame. I'll be around if you need the company. Don't let that bully push you around." She turned away from him and began to walk back down the block, trudging through soot and ashes left over from the fire that happened almost two weeks ago.

A shutter ran down her spine. The chill was followed by an ache in her lower back and shoulders. One person was already coughing after a week of being out in this mess; Vivian was beginning to wonder if she was getting sick, too.

**X**

**"So Venom has hostages from Fichina?**" Marcus asked, rubbing his temples with his padded fingertips. "We've not found Vivian Hare yet, General."

"She's General Peppy's Granddaughter," Bill said over the channel. "She'll turn up; she's got a lot of fight and spirit in her blood. I say you look for her while you're on Fichina. I hate to send you back to that blistering cold region of the planet but reports indicate that they're using the remains of the Capital as the holding pen. It's a camp and it's gone on for a week. Our Intelligence tells us that they're starving their prisoners and eradicating those who are found to have clout; Senators, congressmen and congresswomen, whoever they can find. I'm not sure about the method of murder but I assure you it won't be pleasant knowing Venom."

"Roger that, General," McCloud replied, adding, "We've been working with Theodore Beltino Toad; I'm glad you sent him our way, General. He's one hell of a pilot. He's got a humble attitude but enough spunk to counteract O'Donnell's cockiness. I'll keep you informed of our progress."

"Sounds good… Marcus. So have you heard from Violet yet?" Bill was obviously sitting at a desk, his hands folded and his posture looking more military than McCloud has seen of him in ages.

Marcus face-faulted; the question obviously took the wind from his sails. He licked his lips apprehensively then said, "I received one encoded text-only transmission saying that she was going to be away from the team for a while; she's safe and that I have nothing to worry about right now. She said things are going to be complicated right now but to just survive this Venom Mission and that we'll talk when the dust settles."

Bill shook his head, holding his paws up as if to say that he understood and there was no need for Marcus to worry about anything. "I'm sorry this is happening when you should be taking care of your family. Are you sure you want to take these missions?"

"We'll do the jobs; just send us the money when we finish our work. Team StarFox out," He said with some semblance of a very thin grin, closing the channel. It felt good to address himself as the leader of the StarFox squadron. The thing is, he was still having nightmares about the original StarFox team and that bothered him. They were different each time he had them but it was still disconcerting to see a vision of his father's team going through such strife. Whether or not Falco lost part of a limb, he wasn't sure; the only thing Marcus knew is that he was worried for the safety of the men and women he considered family while growing up.

Pressing a button on the side of his Captain's chair, he announced, "Everyone report to the bridge." The ship's intercom relayed the message to the rest of the crew and it didn't take long for them to start showing up. Fara Phoenix was the first to arrive, stepping through the doors with a smile. She wore a purple workout leotard, lime green sweats and a matching green sweatband set around her head and wrists.

Marcus couldn't be sure why it was sexy to see a beautiful woman sweat just a little but the irresistible vixen's musk was tantalizing to his senses. She reached her paw up and touched his cheek then moved into a nearby chair, waiting for the rest of the crew to show up. Dash Bowman came in next, followed by Theodore Toad. Next came the O'Donnell Twins and finally, Tricky pranced in, looking at all the assembled pilots.

"Wow, a StarFox get-together huh?" Tricky announced, being the last one through the door. "StarFox… yeah!" His happy little chant caused Dash and Bliss to roll their eyes. Crimson, on the other hand, was already used to it but he couldn't help but portray a lame expression on his face after hearing the annoyingly happy dinosaur.

"You summoned?" Dash asked. His voice and his distant sounding tone had relaxed over the last week, especially seeing the team's abilities. It was slightly humbling and he found it easier to provide them with the benefit of the doubt. He'd taken to Marcus better after seeing him in a training practice. Crimson was especially impressive as well. Theodore Toad was an excellent addition to the new team and Fara Phoenix especially had his respect and admiration. She was the only crew member in which he referred to her with a formal title, which happened to be 'ma'am'.

"Yes, I think he did," Bliss replied to Dash's question, concerning McCloud's roster call. Then she added, "And of course my brother came _running_ to see what Marcus wants."

"Screw off, bitch," Crimson said to his sister, giving her a shove. She immediately swatted back at him, flipping him off with her other paw.

"Whatever, you Lothario Loser. Keep your philandering paws off me, hoebag." Bliss' insults were amusing. She never seemed to have a shortage of words to use on anyone but she always had an extra special edge reserved for talking to her brother.

Crimson was quick to reply, at that. "How can I be a meatstick if you get more pussy than I do?"

"That's right, I _do_," Bliss chided him, "But only from my girl," She added, mentioning her beloved full-vixen mate, Carey. "And don't you forget it, _Crimmy_."

"Hey," Marcus interjected. "Leave Red alone. He's twice the pilot you and your girlfriend are, combined." He gave her a grin to let her know that he was saying that in good humor.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult your _boyfriend_," Bliss replied, ribbing her brother in the gut with her elbow. "You love'em don't you Crimmy-poo?" She sank down into a chair, kicking her right leg up over her left knee, crossing her thighs. "So what's the meeting for, fearless leader?"

"Actually, Bliss," Marcus started, reaching to scratch lightly at the nape of his neck, furrowing a brow just slightly. "Your presence, as well as that of Dash, is completely voluntary. You can leave if you want, that's up to you."

"She and her team were hired by me," Dash reminded, adding, "She's here as my personal guard. I'm not going anywhere until Andrew Oikonny is dead; so if you're allowing of our presence, we'd prefer to volunteer for this mission."

"Understood," Marcus said then spoke again to address the entire assembly. "We've been given a new commission. The pay is good and it will be something we can wrap up far more quickly than disassembling the Venom assault before they compile enough of a force to hit Corneria. General Gray thinks they're setting up shop on Fichina as a supply line to wherever their frontline assault will happen. They've rounded up civilians and are executing high ranking hostages like senators and whatnot. They're starving the people and not really operating by the standards set forth by the Rules of War."

"Sounds simple," Theodore piped up. "We route the heathens, we free the hostages and then we take home a fat paycheck which will pay to upgrade our fighters before the big fight against Venom can directly occur."

"You've got it in a nutshell, Mister Toad," Marcus replied, swishing the tip of his tail which hung over the side of the seat. "I want to get in, blow stuff up, open the gates and get back out in a very short time."

Fara was the next to speak, asking, "What if they hold the hostages at gunpoint? Shouldn't we be a bit more discreet so as not to attract attention and inadvertently cause people to die?" McCloud's demeanor changed. He paused a moment to reflect her suggestion.

"Does anyone here disagree?" Marcus asked. No one raised their paw. McCloud then nodded and said, "Fara is absolutely right. Maybe I was being premature here… If we go in and blow up their supply lines, strike their bases and shoot at the bad guys, they're going to kill our hostages. Vivian Hare might be down there among them and so we have to plan it out carefully. So, new objective: we free the hostages first… we need a plan. I'll lead the team and make sure the plan is carried out or make quick decisions in the field but I want planning input from _everyone_ here. It's in our best interest to keep the innocents alive and well." He got a smile from Fara and felt somewhat glad that Violet wasn't around to have seen it.

"Can we access a Fichinan satellite?" Toad asked. "Maybe we can do some reconnaissance first then we can do some complicated team strikes like taking down two guards at a time with sniper rifles or whatever the situation calls for?" He was wearing his hat again. He'd worn it indoors every day since his arrival to the GreatFox and today was simply no different. His blue flight suit contrasted against the red scarf he wore that matched Marcus McCloud's own aviator neckpiece.

"We should check into that," McCloud said. "Anyone else have an idea to bring to the table up front before we head out to Fichina?" The room was quiet. "All right then, ROB? Set a course for Fichina, please?"

"In three generations of McClouds," Rob said, "You're the first one to say please." Of course it was meant to be a joke and yet everyone sort of just stared at him. After a moment, he turned back to the controls and started punching in the coordinates. The GreatFox II came around, bearing its course. The main view screen lit up with white dots that stretched into pillars of light, like tiny tears in a backlit canopy of the deepest obsidian.

**X**

**The Black Rose** modified Wolfen fighter came to rest on a section of the Capital Dome on Planet Fichina. The canopy lifted, greeting Panther with a harsh wind and its frozen sting. "Ah," He murmured softly, his whiskers blown back against his cheeks. "The moon is quite beautiful tonight; the icy chill complimenting…" He was suddenly jolted from his thought by a gunshot. The blast hissed by him, interrupting his soliloquy. Panther lowered his ears, drawing two magnum caliber blaster pistols. "Aye-yie-yie! Panther does not like these impudent whelps who interject themselves when He has the spotlight!" He leapt from the canopy and landed firmly on the dome ceiling. His eyes dilated just slightly, standing at the edge where part of the dome surface had been destroyed.

His stark golden orbs dropped in through the large hole in the dome that began at his feet. He viewed the city from above, narrowing his gaze. It only took a few moments to spot the marmoset with a rifle who stood at the top of the news building just below. "For love! For death! For the beauty of the cycle of life!" The feline was in excess of 50 years old but he was still as graceful as ever. He leapt forward, tucking his knees to his chest to perform a tight, clean somersault.

After approximately three full rotations, he extended his legs. His feet came in contact with the rooftop and his knees bent slightly to absorb the impact. "Cats always land on their feet," He said to the startled Venom guard. "In this small way, Panther is no different…!" He began walking towards the guard, extending his twin blasters. Before the man could target the feline assassin, Panther shot him three times with each gun. Each gunshot hit the guard in a different pressure point, leaving the man to writhe in pain, flailing about on the ground.

The onyx-furred desperado reached into his vest and retrieved a partially crushed rose. He drew it out and examined the length of the stem on this particular specimen. After a moment, he dropped it at the man's feet then aimed both weapons in the man's face. "I bid you farewell. Via con Dios, Señor."

Panther quickly crossed his wrists, one above the other, pulling the triggers on both weapons. He placed a hole in the guard's skull, between the eyes, and another in the man's chest. "The heart and the mind make a man; you now have neither …so a man you are not." He holstered his pistols then picked up the Venom-issue rifle blaster. He took a moment to inspect it then nodded with a hint of finality. "But you took good care of your weapon; this is something Panther can respect for a gun is much like a woman… in the right paws you have the power of life!"

Another guard came up from behind Panther and placed a shotgun to the back of the feline's head. "Not really," the guard replied, adding, "One creates life, one takes it away."

"Oh no," Panther chuckled, remaining still, "They are _very_ much alike! They are to be cared for, loved and respected. You must appreciate them and caress them in your palms. If you are very good at what you do, they will return your love, respect and appreciation. Panther handles His guns as well as He handles His women."

"Are you a lover or a fighter, you weirdo?" The guard said, poking the assassin in the nape of his neck.

Caruso grinned darkly and said, "I am both." He kicked his right foot back against the man's ankle, simultaneously shoving his left shoulder back in a half pivot on his left heel. The shotgun was pushed away in unison to the man losing his equilibrium. Before the gun could fire and possibly deafen the assassin, Panther reached back and plugged the index finger of his left paw behind the trigger on the weapon.

Swift and graceful, Panther Caruso flipped both the rifle and the shotgun about until he was holding both in the face of his fallen adversary. The shotgun in his left paw and the rifle in his right were both pushed against the ape's nose; his grin widened. "Panther is as graceful as you are clumsy," He nearly crooned in a guttural, robust voice.

"You're that arse from StarWolf!" The guard exclaimed.

Caruso smiled, glad to be recognized. As far as he was concerned, this guard was now one of his fans and was rewarded by getting another five minutes to live. "Indeed, Panther has flown with the elite pilots of Team StarWolf! But He has important matters to attend to, here on this desolate, frozen rock… Where are you keeping your Hostages?"

"Why should I tell you?" The man shouted, frustrated that his end was near.

Panther's smile reverted to a grin, taking the conversation back to where it began. "Because with these weapons, the Desperado Rose has the _power_ to spare your _life_, should you wish to answer the question."

"They're downtown in the square! You won't let me live though!" The guard shouted, hoping to use reverse psychology.

"And why not?" Caruso's question was laconic. Panther was rarely succinct with his dialogue, or in some cases, monologue; however, he wanted to wrap this conversation up and this man's terse rebuttals were beginning to bore him.

The soldier's logic was bland but dead on. "Because you would kill me so that I don't report your presence to the other guards!"

"This is true, Panther knows you would snitch for you are not a man; a true man would make it personal and follow his prey and finish the fight personally. However!" The large, broad shouldered feline lifted both weapons up as if shrugging. "Panther has need of ammunition more than He has need of your silence! And remember, legends are not born or continued without an occasional witness to tell the story!" He spun about, pivoting on his heel and building up momentum in the swing then smacked the guard across the side of his face with the shotgun; it easily rendered the chimp into a state of unconsciousness. Caruso shouldered the rifle then transferred the shotgun to his right paw and announced, "Besides, Panther is out of roses. More must be obtained before lives are taken for beauty and death must be in harmony!" He then turned and headed across the rooftop.

The drop was lethal at best. The next standing building was half the height and too far to reach by a simple jump. He glanced over his shoulder at a door leading to the stairs then frowned. "An escape by stairs… it is neither sexy nor daring. This cannot be; Panther has no other choice but to be … sexy and daring!" He returned his gaze to the sheer drop at the edge of his feet. He stepped forward, spreading his arms and legs outwards. The cold air rushed forth, giving his fur that natural windblown look as he tumbled from the sky.

He reached behind his back and snatched a zip-cord that was wedged into his garment. With a firm tug, a parasail erupted from the boxy metallic vest he wore. Cords ran to a specially designed compartment that was nestled between his shoulder blades. Embroidered upon the parasail was a finely stitched rose. The control cables were decorated in a way to resemble thorny stems. It was oddly cliché in a manner of speaking but the feline also felt it worked for his image and thus had no problems performing the stunt.

He sailed clear around the side of the building and his sharp pilot eyes spied the massive pen filled with people down on the street below. Two small glowing dots in the camp represented the glow of metal barrels filled with fire for people to stay warm. His rapid descent brought him above a small group of guards sitting at a poker table, just outside the pen gates.

He separated his ankles, landing upon the shoulders of the first guard. With a sharp arch of his feline hips, he managed to snap the man's neck. At all the same time, he bared the shotgun with only his right paw. His body bucked slightly, pulling the trigger. The blast caused his shoulder to ache but he was in shape enough that it didn't dislocate his shoulder joint. Two other guards were blown out of their seats, filled with buckshot. They landed in the snow, dead.

He then glided to his feet from the shoulders of the slumping guard whose neck he'd broken. He sank into an empty chair, facing the last remaining guard, then snatched the cards lying face down in front of him. He gave the shotgun a rather surprising twirl then brought the barrel down on the remaining man's cards, forcing them out of the lizard's hand.

The surprised guard's jaw dropped. His cards were a simple two pair. Panther used his left paw to lay out the cards he'd acquired from the table, laying them face up to display a straight flush of Hearts. "It was meant to be, don't you think? _Hearts_ are _Panther's_ suite," He added, pulling the trigger on the shotgun which was pinning the two pair cards to the table. The blast eviscerated the guard from the stomach up in a messy display of wanton gore. Suddenly something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye.

The graceful panther noted a floral shop in the ruins, nearby. After sitting in the remains for two weeks, the flowers were surly dead and withered but the store's proximity still elicited a light chuckle from his throat. "There are roses enough for all of you but… I am ashamed to say that they are wilted and ugly by now. My apologies, gentleman." Caruso stood up from the card table and tossed the now-empty shotgun to the ashen ground.

"Now to find you, Vivian Hare," he whispered softly. "Show yourself to Panther, my little space-flower," he added, approaching the pen. The cat began to walk the parameter, looking for a lapin pilot. Caruso was clever, having done his homework before his mission. He had intercepted the transmissions between Bill and Marcus. Now he knew that McCloud would soon arrive and be looking for Vivian Hare. His plan was to find her first, rescue her and use her to kill Marcus McCloud for murdering Krystal.

**X**

**The people who had spent the last week in this poorly constructed pen** knew better than to go near the gates. Guards liked to patrol the fence and they often antagonized those who were near enough to the parameter. Many of the people had turned salvageable debris into materials with which to construct shoddy huts. People that were murdered by the guards were left in the streets. Their corpses festered with maggots and the stench was unbearable.

Vivian's white shirt and overalls were now grimy from helping to construct huts out of the trash, a few days prior. Now she bided her time by avoiding the remaining population. It seemed that more than half of her inmates wanted Nibbles for food and she was aggressively opposed to the idea. Her body trembled softly, wracked with fever; her sinuses were compacted from living in the ashes and soot. Her joints were aching and her stomach was not in agreement to some of the food she'd been receiving.

She shivered gently, fighting the illness that was beginning to ravage her body. Nobody had died from sickness just yet but it was obvious that several people didn't have long to live, including herself. She knew that one person already had pneumonia which stemmed from that person having bronchitis _before_ being captured. Vivian's fur stood up on end as the fever continued to set in, giving her goose bumps.

Soft footsteps could be heard, crunching gently against the clutter, strewn across the pen. Tin cans and various articles of trash were everywhere. Broken window fragments and crumbling chunks of concrete littered the entire downtown area. She glanced over her shoulder, sitting in the dancing shadow behind a makeshift hut. She was hidden from the heat of the nearest barrel fire, trying to stay alone.

The badger approached her from behind but her ears were still good enough to discern a second set of footfalls approaching. Peering out from behind the ratty little hut, she saw that the Badger was returning to seek her out. Since she'd last seen him, he'd lost his dilapidated shoes and now walked on his bare feet, trying not to wince from the lack of calluses on the padded bottoms of his hind-paws.

"This is your last chance, woman," The badger announced. She could feel the soft tremble joining her own shivering body from deep in the chest pocket just beneath her neckline. "Give me the freakin' pet and you'll walk away from all of this."

Vivian had her knees drawn up to her shoulders, sitting on the ground with her arms partially wrapped around her legs. This sickness came on fast in the last two hours, leaving her a shivering wreck. "Go to hell; you're going to come down with the same illness as the others and in the end," She paused for a dramatic effect. "You'll die face down in the street."

"You had your chance," He said, approaching her. His friend, a short-furred canine with a gray and black swirled coat, flanked her on the other side. She was surrounded. Her first instinct was to fight or run but her body was exhausted and succumbing to a respiratory infection that was setting in. Her lower lip trembled from the growing fever but her eyes belied that she was not afraid of them.

The badger pulled out a sharpened triangular-shaped stone, lifting it where she could see the weapon. He thrust his paw up into the air, preparing to deliver a deathblow. Vivian cut her glance to the other guy then back to the badger, weighing her options at this point. She knew she was quick and could probably dodge the first strike and so she tensed herself; ready for anything, she knew she couldn't simply go down like _this_.

A flash of light caused her to blink. Its blinding intensity lasted for only a split second but in that brief instance, a miracle occurred in all its twisted ironic glory. A high output blaster shot had lanced through the air, severing the badger's wrist completely. The intense heat cauterized the badger's forearm, leaving it as a disfigured stump, smoldering with the potent pong of burnt flesh and fur. A single whiff was overpowering to even the weakest senses and it caused the nearby canine to flinch.

"What in the F-" The badger found himself cut off as another lethal blast pierced the night air, incising deep through the side of his muzzle. The expertly placed shot merely singed his lips but his tongue had been removed with ease, leaving him to hum a scream, clamping his muzzle shut. His instincts kicked in, knowing he'd been beaten and so he retreated quickly, kicking up ashes in his wake from the hurried sprint he executed.

The canine backed away slowly. "When we come back we're going to hack you up and cut out your heart, you little…!" His words were cut short with a gasp at the end of his tongue. His eyes lifted above Vivian Hare, causing her to blink …only for a black satin vale to fall over her form. Its velveteen softness was like a blanket and she drew it close to her, to stifle her intense shivering. The parasail now surrounded the rabbit and Panther Caruso, standing behind her, held a magnum pistol a blaster rifle.

A wisp of steam danced above the barrel of the rifle, the evanescence thinning out by the passing second. It was the weapon's way of identifying itself as the entity responsible for bringing the Badger down just a notch or two. Now it was pointed directly at the canine accomplice, causing him to back away further.

Panther smiled at the man offering a dark, almost sardonic smirk to the adversary. "Now would be a good time…" A growl flourished at the back of his throat, bleeding gracefully into his words, "…to leave." The snarl extended itself after his words fell silent, becoming subdued and retreating into the back of his throat, rumbling in his chest. A stark contrast to his raven fur, a smile that hinted glinting fangs; they glimmered as white as a virgin snow and the canine cringed at the size of Caruso's incisors. The cowering dog continued to back off, keeping his eyes on the weapons.

Once he felt he was far enough away, he pivoted on his heel and broke into a dash, disappearing across the pen. Panther shouldered one weapon and holstered the other then snatched up each of four cables that were attached to the parasail. He lifted them to his mouth, lowering his head and snapped through them with the power of his jaw. Slowly, the assassin knelt besides her and wrapped the satin and nylon chute around her body, like a blanket. "Are you Vivian Hare?" He whispered gently into her ear from behind.

"I am," She replied to the unknown savior. He then eased his paws beneath her mid-back and knees, lifting her up into his arms. His powerful upper body made it easy to draw her up to his chest. She didn't know what else to do and so she simply rested her head against his shoulder, still covered completely in the black, silky fabric. His mellifluous march took her across the pen; the cables that hung from each of the four corners of the sail were content to drag through the soot, leaving lines to frame the wake of his footprints.

"Do you know why I've come for you?" He asked, careful to ensure that his plan would not become intercepted.

"Because I'm the heir to retired-General Peppy Hare?" Her question was simply in reply to Panther's inquiry. He smiled inwardly and decided that it was the perfect alibi to guarantee success. After all, he didn't want the bait to alert his future Victim. He had only one rose left and was saving it for Marcus McCloud, which is what Bill Gray had called the fox over the intercepted channel.

"_Someone_ had to rescue the last Heir of the family Hare," Panther whispered softly into her ear. His rich, robust baritone voice caused her to shutter but for a different reason than the fever that was setting in. And yet, she'd not even seen his face yet. For now, she was content with that fact. She was cradled in his arms with her paws folded overtop of her chest, keeping Nibbles safe in her pocket.

"Thank you," She replied in a husky tone before clearing her throat.

Panther quickly hushed her words of appreciation, telling her, "There is no need for thanks; Panther does this deed for His personal gain." He thought better on the subject then added, "but… You're welcome, Miss Hare."

**X**

**Marcus and his team closed into a tight formation** then set down on the planet's surface. The diamond shape quartet consisted of Theodore, Fara, Marcus and Crimson. Bliss and Dash were on the other side of the dome, so that the team could better secure the area on all sides. Stealth Camouflage was in use and the team was exercising radio silence.

The fighters sank into the snow, leaving empty-looking indentations in the frosty blanket. The opening of the cockpit looked as though a rip was opening in the time-space continuum, allowing for a control panel and cockpit seat to be seen out of the middle of nowhere. Each of the four pilots climbed out of their fighters, sliding down the side and into the snow. The canopy windows were shut, leaving minimal traces of the fighters to be identified only by the indentation in the snow. A light blanket of powder was falling over the ships, outlining them just slightly.

Marcus approached the bundled amphibian and asked, "How long will these camouflage devices last, Theodore?"

"At least one hundred hours in these white-out conditions," Theodore replied. "It works by refracting light and when it sits in a desert or in the snow, it doesn't use much energy to simulate the refracted invisibility." The frog followed the group up to a large set of double doors that marked the front entrance of the dome. The gigantic set of doors were without power but they were parted just enough to allow each pilot to squeeze through. "Jeez," Theodore muttered, seeing the burnt out shell of a city for the first time.

The group was bundled up in winter gear and loaded up with a set of personal blasters and an SMG. Crimson was the one who had meticulously inventoried and dispensed the weapons, having an obsessive compulsive tick concerning who got what and how it was inventoried. While a mild derangement, it was one that Marcus liked, knowing a member of his team made absolute sure each weapon functioned properly and was charged before a mission.

The group hustled out into the streets, heading towards two buildings that remained only a few stories high. Each building seemed to have collapsed from the fire two weeks prior and the alleyways between them were filled with debris. The team crouched down behind Marcus, waiting for him to give an order or signal. The fox turned back to Theodor and gave the amphibian a smile. "All right, technical wiz, this is your forte, bud, just like your father. We need to use a digital map to see where we are in this city."

Toad nodded, pulling out a GPRS navigation unit. The problem was, in a dome, there was no south-facing satellite feed. "You know, I'm technical like my father, but I just want everyone to know that I'm not a huge pushover wimp like him," Ted mused, while dialing in a few keys on the small handheld machine. "I won't flake out on you in a fight like he would."

"Now why in the world would you think that about Slippy?" Marcus asked, kneeling next to Fara and Crimson, facing Toad who was operating the handheld map unit. "I hung out with him on GreatFox II after I was old enough to start flying."

Theodore never lifted his eyes from the navigation unit. "I was attending the Cornerian Flight academy when Andross attacked GreatFox II and GreatFox Carrier," He explained then added, "I had his passion for mechanical stuff and so people compared me to him in the academy. I've done my best to disprove the predisposition in flight school. I didn't want instructors or wingmates to think I couldn't handle my ship. Believe me, I take it to the bad guys every time I fly."

Marcus stole a fleeting glimpse at Crimson then at Fara before shaking his head. He glanced over his shoulder, to the other end of the alley then brought his gaze back to Theodore and said, "I saw him fly right before the team went MIA," he told young Ted Toad. "He and I were on the deck together when Andross attacked. _He_ ordered _me_ to prep the other ships then went for his _own_ ship and launched _alone_. Slippy Toad did it in an Arwing to buy the entire squadron time. He saved both of those ships and saved my life as well as the life of Peppy Hare. Andross was attacking the GreatFox II and Slippy launched alone to fake Andross into thinking it was my father. Had he not bought the team time, Andross would have destroyed GreatFox II and killed all hands on board. He also left Aquais in search of my father when the Anglars attacked Lylat. He might have been a little skittish about things but he didn't lack brains _or_ guts. If he did, dad wouldn't have wanted him as a StarFox Pilot for so many years running."

Theodore had no rebuttal. He simply finished dialing in the map using a transponder reflection technique by bouncing the data signals off of a building and angling the reception beam up through the hole in the center of the dome. After downloading a sky-view of the city's layout, he copied it into the memory and displayed an overhead map grid on the screen. With that accomplished, he handed the unit to McCloud and said, "I let my opinion of him change when I left for the academy at 17. This is really the first time I've heard someone speak of him in a positive light."

The two grew quiet as a pair of Venom troops dashed passed the alley opening. They kicked up dust and soot in their wake, obviously in a hurry to their destination. Once they were gone, McCloud cleared his throat before speaking again.

"Slippy was a good pilot," Marcus said. "He wasn't as sensational as some other pilots but he was certainly better than the average military airman or he wouldn't have flown for StarFox. Your mom was a fairly good pilot as well but both of them designed their ships to make up for whatever skills they may have lacked. I saw you fly during exercises earlier this week and I think StarFox now needs Slippy's son to fly. We're lucky to have you with us but I assure you Ted, no one thinks lowly of you because of your father's piloting; no one thinks low of your father's piloting, either. Like I said, he was better than most and as gutsy as could be when it came to ensuring the safety and security of his team or his family. Don't you _dare_ be ashamed."

Theodore opened his mouth to say something but then decided better on the situation and simply nodded to stay humble. He never knew his father voluntarily flew against Andross to buy his loved ones time. Finally, Toad told them, "Let's talk about this later. I want to catch up on things and get to learn more about him. I mean, I was a kid the last time I saw him… 17 was a long time ago."

"Agreed," Fara said, patting the frog on his shoulder. "But you're just as much of an asset to this team as I'd hoped for, Ted. After all, you've brought us Electronic Camouflage, a homemade unit that can get us an overhead map of the city and," She grinned a bit then added, "I'm a flight instructor… or rather, I was… When we were practicing earlier in the week, I noticed that you knew how to fly. It's obvious you're crucial as a StarFox Pilot. All of us are glad you're here."

Theodore smiled a bit and said, "Thanks guys. I guess I sometimes feel like I have to make up for his mistakes as a pilot. People used to judge me in the academy and I felt like I … Whatever, let's just worry about this conversation later," he said, interrupting himself before adding, "Thanks for the in-field pep-talk. So, what's the plan, Marcus?"

"Any time," McCloud replied before adding, "We're walking in to a trap, I sense that someone here is watching the four of us but I can't pinpoint them and I have no idea who it is."

"An ambush?" Crimson asked, blinking rapidly. "I thought we used radio silence, electronic camouflage and landed without telling anyone so that we'd have the advantage in this mission?"

"I sense that someone was watching for us to come in," Marcus explained, adding, "They're hunting us or, possibly, just me. It's hard to concentrate and yet I'm pretty sure I feel that we were spotted… not by Venom but someone else who wants to see us fail our mission."

"It's your call," Fara said, reaching up to fluff her headfur. The soft, glossy sheen of her fur was one of her many attractive qualities; it complimented her appearance but contrasted deeply against the dark gray flight suit which matched that of the rest of StarFox. Everyone was suited in a stealth-looking suit which was dark in color to better fit in with their dismal surroundings. The suits weren't very high tech but they were well insulated from the cold, made from Gortex and Kevlar.

The design of these suits didn't reflect light but rather, they were designed to absorb it. Even if a flashlight was pointed at these suits, the beam didn't show up very well. The team was smart to stay to the shadows and with the power out, most of the city was cast in a shroud of darkness. Fara and Marcus had no trouble as foxes possessed keen night vision. Crimson also had fairly good eyesight in the dark and Theodore's own eyes were vertical slits, allowing the amphibian to see very well.

The only one who would require night vision was Dash, on the other end of the Dome. Paired with Bliss O'Donnell, the two pilots were kneeling in a burnt out convenience store. The familiar green phosphorescent glow of the night vision goggles showed Dash Bowman everything around him. The occasional flair of a bright light caused the goggles to become useless for a moment but the ape required them to see in the dark.

Bowman and Bliss knew that StarFox, on the other side of town, had requested radio silence but Dash was contemplating a breech in order due to the nature of what he and his bodyguard had discovered. They held their position in silence, watching as Panther Caruso carried a woman draped in black satin through the streets. He put his right foot on a hotel office door and shoved it hard, swinging the door wide open. A few moments later, he emerged with a key card in his teeth. He walked through the parking lot and stopped at one of the outside-access rooms then placed his knee up against the door to support the covered female.

It took a little grace but the feline managed with a flourish, opening the door with a battery operated card reader and getting the two inside. A few short moments later, he reemerged alone and headed into the nearest alley. Bowman and Bliss O'Donnell held their positions, watching quietly. Only ten minutes later, a Wolfen-model fighter descended upon the small hotel's rooftop, landing above the office building. The cockpit opened and Caruso slid to the rooftop. He had two rather large cables in his paws and carried them from his ship to the edge of the roof.

With a surprising amount of poise and polish, the elegant feline rappelled over the side of the hotel using the two thick cables from his fighter as a walking line. Holding the cables tightly in his paws, he walked down the hotel office's front facing wall, face down. Halfway to the bottom, he flipped away from the wall and executed a refined somersault, landing with ease on his feet. Caruso turned to the office doors, opened them then carried the two cables inside. Moments later, the hotel and its street sign illuminated brightly, cutting through the dark section of town that was untouched by the lighting which filtered in through the broken section of the dome.

He then reemerged from the hotel's main office and walked back across the parking lot to the room where he had previously taken the unidentified woman. It had been Bliss who identified the body as a female because she'd noticed that the satin covered form had a bust at chest level. Once Panther let himself back into the room and shut the door, Dash and Bliss decided to move.

They sprinted from the convenience store and into the street, crossing the main avenue and ducking down behind the remains of an abandoned hover-car that lay silent in the street. They waited a few seconds then made enough blitz for the hotel, making a break for the office entrance. Once inside the main office, they took positions against the wall, on either side of the entry doors. Both had their weapons drawn and were holding their breath to remain silent.

The hotel office was well illuminated, prompting Bowman to remove and deactivate his night vision goggles. They now rested upon his brow, a singular lense protruding from his forehead like a deformed unicorn. Bliss exhaled with a sigh then drew in fresh air and said, "No one's here; this room is clear. Let's check for portable motion detecting traps first then we'll contact StarFox. It looks like he's powering this place from his fighter; I wonder who that girl was, in his arms."

"No clue; any ideas?" Bowman asked.

"Woman's intuition suggests," Bliss paused, glancing around before stepping away from the wall. She continued, saying, "It's probably the target that Marcus is hunting for. You know how ironic that would be?"

"It would be considerably ironic," The chimp agreed. "Let's investigate further; I'm not quite sure what brings Panther Caruso into the field and I don't know if his intentions are hostile or if he's on a personal rescue operation. I want to have answers before we report our findings to StarFox. After all, they requested radio silence for the time being."

"All right," Bliss said with a nod. "Leave it to me," She told him, prancing over to the main desk to look for any signs of portable surveillance gear… there was none. "I know that manwhore pretty well; I'll figure out a way to lure him outside and we'll start from there. I don't think going into the room and talking to the woman is a good idea; she might be a family member or someone special to Panther but he can't resist a good taunt and he's pretty loose with his mouth when talking to another woman. I'll see what I can learn from him. You lay low, Dash. Cover me, just incase."

Bowman nodded, watching as Bliss systematically scouted the entire lobby and office area. "It's clean," She said before adding, "Go to the window and keep an eye on me. I'll draw his attention because it's something I'm good at. Here we go," She told him with an airy chuckle of confidence. Bliss headed for the doors, walking out of the Office, holstering her sidearm on her thigh holster.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Dash mused quietly, taking a position at the nearest window to cover her. He turned out the office lighting and reactivated his night vision goggles. Out in the parking lot, Bliss cleared her throat, devising a plan to get Panther's interest. She would have to reenact some sort of damsel in distress routine to grab his attention but her thoughts were put on pause when she noticed the silhouette of a man up on the rooftop.

O'Donnell squinted in the darkness, able to discern only a few features about the man's appearance. He was wearing a dark colored tie and had a cane in his left paw. From what she could tell, he was a broad shouldered, muscular looking badger. "…Who in the hell?" She muttered. The man turned away from the edge of the roof above her and began to walk away. She cocked her head in confusion then shrugged off the incident and continued towards Panther's room.

Bliss put her ear against the door and paused. She could vaguely hear them speaking but it was too muffled to make out what they were saying. She fished her paw into her gear and pulled out what could only be described as a stethoscope, placing the ear buds against either side of her head and the cone-shaped ending against the door.

"No, it's complicated," She heard Panther saying. He then added, "I… Am… hunting for the answers to something that puzzles and frustrates …me. It's difficult. Panther wishes not for you to see a weak side of him; please forgive this strange moment. A mission - that is what you may call this… It won't be discussed further; the details are bothersome in many ways, Vivian."

Bliss quirked a brow, sitting up on her haunches, listening through the door with the small device. "I'm sorry you feel that way," The woman said. "I don't know Marcus 'Star' McCloud but you know how the media blows things out of proportion. Maybe you should investigate his side of the story and proceed from there. The news coverage is blurry at best and I somehow think this may be tied in to that little incident that made him so popular on the news last week."

"Indeed," Caruso replied with a deep, rumbling sigh. A pause followed then a deep, throaty purr ensued. Bliss couldn't be sure what was going on without a visual but felines only purred like that when someone was providing some measure of physical attention…

On the inside of the door, Panther and Vivian had no idea that someone was listening in on the conversation. He sat on the edge of the bed with his elbows on his knees and his face in his paws while Vivian sat up on her knees behind him, with her paws on his upper back. The rabbit knew how to relax a tense muscle and she had two very broad shoulders to work with. He'd saved her from getting killed and was a perfect gentleman thus far; she felt that there was nothing wrong with a short back massage. After all, she felt somewhat indebted to him for the room, clean clothes and being provided with power so that she could be comfortable and warm tonight.

"You'll be leaving soon, won't you?" She asked.

"Panther must find him as the Truth cannot be ascertained in the matter until there is… confrontation." Caruso had set his sights on killing Marcus without so much as blinking or letting Marcus know which breath would be his last but Vivian brought up a valid point. After all, the news reporter _did_ claim that Krystal died from a heart attack, not necessarily from being impaled. But he was here to do a mission and he _would_ see it through to the end. There was no doubt in his mind - the mission would go forth as planned with only a slight variation at the climatic conclusion. He tightened up his right paw at the thought of it all.

"Would you stop that?" Vivian scolded politely. She would have swatted at him playfully but she didn't know her savior well enough to know how he would react to that. She simply kept her paws on his shoulders, feeling kinda sorry for the older gentleman. Other than his cocky ego and suddenly rambling off in third person half the time, he wasn't such a bad guy. He was in shape, he had intense eyes and he was obsessively romantic for a _straight_ man. Then again, who knows? Vivian had to wonder if he really was completely one way, as much as he pranced around. But wasn't that normal for cats? She couldn't be completely sure and right now, she didn't rightly care.

"If Marcus McCloud _is_ responsible for this atrocity," Panther mused softly, "He may not live through the night."

On the other side of the door, Bliss blinked rapidly, widening her eyes. She had to find some way to contact Marcus or her brother as soon as possible. As far as Panther Caruso went, she knew that he had a perfect track record of assassinations. No one has ever really escaped his claws unless he _wanted_ them to live. The man had flown with her father long enough for her to know a great deal about him. As far as she knew, the only man to evade his wrath was the Prime Minister of Corneria (A/N: _Reflections of Krystal, Chapter 9_) and only because that was a planned abduction that was supposed to look like an assassination.

Bliss O'Donnell backed away from the door. She changed her mind about attracting the headhunter's attention. Instead, she decided to go back to the office, find Dash and then hook up with StarFox to warn McCloud. She didn't care about him one way or the other but she really didn't care for Panther and his ego, either. Plus, it sounded like he was with that Vivian lady who McCloud was now looking for. It was just as she called it; she smirked patting herself on the back for being right. Bliss quickly snuck back across the parking lot to the main office and let herself in through the door.

"Change of plan," She announced. "We've got to find StarFox and we've got to do it quick. Let's go."

**

* * *

**

A/N: _Okay, I know it took me a while but I just can't stand the last few pages of this chapter. I even thought about ending it with Panther rescuing Vivian because that was so fun to write. Once I got back to the part where I was writing about the StarFox team, I was like, "Man, what in the world can I follow up with? I want to start the next chapter with more action but dang! To keep going after Panther rescues Vivian is just going to feel bland and boring! Anyway, sorry it took so long and sorry I couldn't think of anything better to follow with! I'm nearly finished chapter 24 of Lament Of Carmelita I should have it up tonight or tomorrow :) I really need to update Similar Paths Taken :-O _

_-ken_


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter -19-

**Bill Gray placed a paw upon the exit button**, standing in the doorway to the fallout shelter which led underground, into the sewers. He wore a suit that was designed to repel the effects of radiation in space and it was assumed that this would keep him alive up in the city. He glanced back over his shoulder then nodded to the rest of the room. "I'll return shortly. I'll bring food; this is simply something I feel that _I_ have to do." He pressed in on the button, stepped through the door and headed for a ladder down the tunnel.

It went straight up into the heart of downtown, which had been obliterated. Nearly a full day had passed and upon the removal of the manhole cover, Bill pulled himself up to the surface, gazing about in awe. The silence was disgustingly deafening. No wind, no cicadas were chirping; there was nothing. Bill began to walk through the rubble, shaking his head in defeat. He was given Corneria's finest city and in a very short time, he let it become destroyed. In the distance, there were still buildings and there were signs of what was a prominent city but in this massive center – the epicenter - the city now resembled a donut, in some measure.

He continued out, on foot, heading across town. Glancing back over his shoulder, he could see that the Interplanetary Defense Administration building was still standing, having withstood the nuclear blast with startling ease. It was the only building in a two mile radius that stood and yet it was practically the ground zero target. Bill continued walking; there was nothing else he could do at this point. Another mile of silence before his ears perked within the helmet he wore. There was a chirping noise up the block and he continued towards it.

An angry car alarm wailed to a deafened city, its cry of distress went on non-existent ears. As Bill approached the noise, he could tell that it was a fairly low pitch… an obvious sign that the battery was dying in the vehicle. While it seemed strange, he couldn't quite place his finger on what bothered him about the scene. Suddenly, it dawned on him… every other electronic device in the city was dead but this car alarm was still working.

To Bill, this was a sign of one out of two possible things: Either the vehicle's energy cell was different than conventional electronics or this vehicle arrived _after_ the blast. He had no information on the weapon that was used and so he couldn't quite form a theory just yet. He approached the hover-car, which was embedded into the front of a traffic light pole, and began to circle it, inspecting the vehicle for himself. To his surprise, he noted that there were scorch marks on the back end with several holes where blasters were able to penetrate the metallic trunk and bumper.

A body was slumped over in the driver's seat, his or her face resting on the top of the steering wheel. A deployed airbag was sitting in the person's lap and it was immediately obvious that they were dead. Upon closer examination, he noticed that a blaster hole had eviscerated the canine's lower neck, severing their spinal column. It was a grisly scene and yet it was void of the macabre mess that one would have expected from such a state of demise. There was no splattered blood or otherwise any sign of death that tainted the interior and upholstery, beyond the holes on the back end of the vehicle. Now Bill was curious.

"What brought you into town and who followed you here?" Gray asked himself, approaching the vehicle, placing a gloved paw on the door handle. It opened with a creaking noise, obviously in need of lubrication in the door hinges from the rippled metal which was caused when the front of the vehicle collided with a street light pole. The driver was a male, holding a piece of paper in one of his paws.

The effects of Riga Mortis had ended and so it was easy to dislodge the scrap of old fashion paper from his paw. Upon it, scribbled in charcoal were the words, "_Venom task force is gathering four miles north of City Limit_." There were coordinates written on the page, which meant that this driver had scribbled down his findings and had every intention of driving into the city and reporting this message to whoever was left alive at the Defense building. However, it was equally obvious that Venom scouts stopped the message from being delivered.

"They're routing us," Bill whispered to himself, adding, "They're trying to cut all ties of communication so that they can strike the survivors _before_ the invasion begins. That means the rest of Corneria and Lylat… They have been completely cut off from _me_."

Bill grew pale, seeing a few crates sitting on the passenger-side seat and more in the backseats. They were boxes of food and medical supplies; bottled water, eggs and sealed containers of unspoiled meat with preservatives for guaranteed freshness. This man risked his life to bring supplies and information and he paid the ultimate price for his sacrifice. "What a Goddess-send; he's a hero," Bill said, carefully checking the body for identification. A plastic card in the wallet of his front pocket read, "John Ruthford." At age 31, the man died trying to be a patriot. Thanks in part to his dying car alarm and the fact that Bill felt compelled to search for food this afternoon, this man's legacy would go on and his message _would_ be delivered.

Bill glanced around the area, looking for some way to cart the supplies back into the city. He was still too close to the downtown area to find a hardware store with a wheel barrel in reasonable walking distance and carrying all those boxes back to ground zero would be far too cumbersome. He had to hurry before the noise attracted attention to him; his only option was to begin hunting for something that would help him.

Across the street, there was an abandoned car garage with a House Movers franchise business on the street level section with an office on the side of the building. It wasn't the moving trucks he was interested in, because he knew they would all be dead; however, he headed across the street anyhow.

Inside the building, he located appliance dollies and hand trucks which were often rented with the moving vans. The place sold padlocks, rope, cutting tools and work gloves, as well as other supplies used for moving. The windows had been blown out, leaving glass all over the floor of the deserted office. Bill took a hand truck from its resting place in the corner and snatched some rope and a cutting utensil. He nodded firmly, pleased with his find, then headed back towards the door with equipment.

It didn't take long to load up the hand truck, cut some rope and tie the boxes down to the metal dolly, making sure it wouldn't fall off if he had to run with it at some point. Once everything was secure, he began his trek back towards downtown, keeping the note in a secure place for future planning purposes. Also, he took the energy cell from the hover car to use for power back at the fallout shelter, just in case. It was a sterling find and while he wasn't exactly the most religious man, one could easily argue that it was something provided by the Goddess, herself.

It was a cloudy morning but there was no rain. With all the litter and debris in the streets, Bill's job wasn't made easy and rolling the hand truck through the side streets and back alleys would prove to be an easier route. He turned into an alley, headed down along the length of the two buildings on either side then paused at the mouth of the alleyway to look both ways as if cars were coming. It was instinctual at this point but he caught something out of the corner of his eye. There was a young female, a few years older than Jane at the "Five And Dime" store on the corner. She was probably about sixteen or so and she wasn't alone.

Bill stopped in his track, squinting a bit to see. His pilot's vision was as good as ever and from what he could tell, she was struggling or arguing with another man, inside the building. Bill wheeled the cart across the street then stopped outside of the store, holding his breath and listening as best as he could through the filtered ports of his bio-suit.

"Get your hands off of me!" The girl snapped. "Why don't you just shoot me; you nasty, scaly bastard!" She cried in anger. Bill blinked rapidly, quickly realizing what was going on. He wheeled the hand truck of supplies into the maw of the next alley then put his foot up on top of the supplies, hoisting himself upwards. He crawled onto the awning above the broken window and moved about until he was centered, directly above the empty opening. "Stop! I'm engaged," She lied, trying to buy time. "I'm a virgin!" She added in protest. "Fire!" She immediately shouted, hoping to attract _anyone_ within shouting range.

"Stop noise, Cornerian," The lizard hissed in broken wording. He wrapped his claws around her right thigh, trying to force the woman up against a wall. "You shall die soon anyhow; your body dies from poison in the air… we both die soon, it makes no difference; open legs!" He demanded. There was no doubt in Bill's mind what was going on. She was fussing with him, trying to keep her skirt down; the lizard was trying to molest her, knowing that he, too, would die soon from radiation. It made Bill wonder if he was some sort of Mole from before the blast happened… how else would he have been in the city prior to the nuclear blast?

"Please, just… don't do this. Please?" She put a heartfelt weep into her plea but the Lizard wanted to do this deed then be done with her.

Bill turned around, still crouched on the awning, then jumped backwards, away from the building. He grabbed the horizontal pole at the edge of the awning and swung his legs forward, swinging in through the glassless window. His feet connected with both of them but he was quick to swing his legs in the direction of the lizard. The maneuver caused his ankles to lock around the lizard's neck and the creature reached up to grab at his knees. The old recently-adopted General released the awning bar and his body continued with forward momentum, carrying him directly into the Venom Scout. The two of them went tumbling to the floor, causing the girl to gasp in surprise.

All she knew is that a man in a body suit with a Cornerian helmet was coming to her rescue from outside, above the window. Bill landed on top of the lizard, delivering a series of pummeling blows to the poisoned soldier. "Don't! Treat! Women! Like! That!" He said between each strike of his glove-covered paw, adding "Dude!" at the end just as a reason to get in that last and final punch. After a few moments, the volley of fisticuffs came to an end. The older man was panting softly and the lizard wasn't moving. "…Dude," He huffed, wiping his brow with the backside of a gloved paw, only for his suite-covered glove to simply rub against a glass visor.

"Can you walk?" Bill panted. She didn't know how old he was because of the suit and helmet he wore but she was glad, nevertheless. He stood up slowly and she pushed herself away from the wall, throwing her arms around his neck in gratitude. Bill was an older man under the protective gear but she couldn't tell at this point and didn't care right now. He simply lifted his paws and gently placed them on the back of her head, tucking her face beneath his chin for a moment. He could faintly feel the pounding of her racing heart against his chest, even through the specially designed fabric of his anti-radiation garment.

He could hear her sobbing ever so softly against his shoulder, just letting out the frustrations and embarrassment that she had sustained from such an assault. Luckily it was nothing more than a close encounter and a psychological scare. Any further and she'd have had a far greater hurt to carry to the grave. Still, it scared her to know how vulnerable she was and it equally brought her to tears and she could remember how terrible it felt to have those scaly fingers on her leg. "I'm dying aren't I? He's right, isn't he?"

"It's …possible," Bill replied. "It's why I'm wearing this suit. I'm the new General of Corneria and it worries me to know that many may very-well die from being exposed." He slid his smoothly gloved paw into the female canine's hair and soothed her with soft petting and fatherly affection. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner," he added.

The girl shook her head left to right on a very slight level. "Don't apologize; you were wonderful and I appreciate it." She looked up at him, leaving a great deal of her hair in Bill's paw. It was starting to come out and Bill's heart simply dropped. Her pretty face was reflected in the visor of his helmet and she stared back at herself… eyes sunken in and bloodshot, bangs missing, gums beginning to bleed… She was a pretty little thing; an unfortunate mess as a direct result of this travesty of a weapon.

"I'm sorry," Bill repeated, adding, "I feel as though this city's demise is my fault, just as much as it's my responsibility."

The girl tilted her head, adding a hint of sarcasm to her features. "Isn't it obvious? They waited until someone new came along, when there was nothing more than confusion. Now was the perfect time to strike… when the leadership changed, before every conceivable security protocol could be put into effect. But what if there are more? Or what if more have already been dropped on this planet and we have no way of knowing?"

Bill's chest seemed to twist into knots. She was a smart girl, pretty and even near death, she worried about the rest of her species. Also, her worries brought back worries of his own, being cut off from the rest of Corneria. "Can you help me move supplies back to the base? I can get you a bed so that you'll have a comfortable place to sleep tonight."

"I'll be dead, soon," She said. Her teeth were pinkish in tint from the bleeding of her gums and the sore that had formed on her lips and tongue, in the last 12 hours. "Let me help you move these supplies but then I wish to go and attend to my own agenda."

"Can I ask what you have planned?" Bill inquired, leading her to the door of the corner store and opening it for her. She was still unable to see his face and that bothered him for some reason. Then again, she preferred to imagine her Hero in her mind, the way she wanted to see him.

The girl shook her head slowly, offering a sad smile as she passed through the door. "I'm going to walk to the Golden Oak Cemetery and lay down besides my father. I spent six hours, yesterday, carrying my mother over there. I laid her down next to daddy; he died in a work-related accident less than two weeks ago. I'm going to lie down over there and just let myself fall asleep. That's why I came here… because this store sells 'Over the Counter' sleeping pills. If I'm lucky, I just won't wake up, that way it happens without pain."

Bill felt ill at his stomach. There was _no reason_ a young girl had to contemplate such things. Her worries should have been about finding a nice boyfriend, what her wedding should be like and how she would get her future children to like reading and math more. She should have had to worry about what to eat at her 25th anniversary dinner. She should have had to worry about what kind of car she wanted to drive, what color shoes to wear to a first interview; something other than _this_. General Gray had nothing to say and very little to offer in the way of advice at this point.

The two walked around to where the hand truck was resting. She pushed against the top and Bill put his foot against the bottom, easing the top end towards himself. Tipping it back, he leaned it against his shoulder and, together, they began to wheel it back towards the base. She wouldn't have long to live but unbeknownst to Bill, she _would_ live for a few days in that graveyard. Ultimately, exhaustion and starvation would set in for the poor girl. She would become ravenously hungry but experience incredible dry heaving and massive sores which would turn to rotten flesh. Her body would begin to decompose just hours before she finally expires. She had a great deal of pain left to endure before final peace. Bill had no idea what suffering was ahead for this young teenage girl. All he knew is that he had to fight harder for her and the dying Cornerians of the Capital city, who were just like her.

* * *

**Marcus McCloud** sighed softly, his eyes landing upon the scarlet beauty of a red rose. It was an odd object to be pinned to the wall and he was the only one around to see the flower. He reached his paw forth and eased his padded fingertips about it, careful not to touch the thorns. Carefully, Marcus drew it from the wall easing it to part with the pin that held the delicate object in place. The petals brushed against his nose as he inhaled the fragrant scent. Such an odd and yet beautiful object to have been placed in such a desecrated, burnt out place; it was obvious that this rose was a sign with purpose behind it.

Marcus could sense something near but it was difficult to concentrate. His mind began to race and that's when he suddenly realized just what was so important about this rose… It was sitting in the mouth of an alley at the edge of an intersection where he brought about the final moments of the blue-furred woman who came to be known as KURSED. The dark Krystal's spirit almost seemed to haunt this section of town and Marcus' heart was already beating faster, just remembering the final seconds of her demise. It seemed as if those seconds lasted _forever_.

He could see it, directly before his eyes as clearly as his dreams about his parents' death which also haunted him on some nights. His lower lip trembled; it was the first time he'd murdered in cold blood. His chest tightened and he felt dizzy by the guilt that plagued his soul. Slowly, the pilot arched his back… his legs became like jelly and the boy collapsed at his knees. The dusty ground lifted up around his body as he collided with the pavement, his back straight, his shoulders slouched and his paws dropping to his knees in a defeated memory of pain and agony. The rose remained in his paw but his head dropped in sorrow and grief. He felt… guilty.

High on the rooftop, Panther watched his victim through the professionally designed scope that was mounted upon a sniper rifle. His brow furrowed, watching the pilot drop to the ground in defeat. Something was wrong. He watched in silence as the pilot, far down on the street surface, knelt forward, burying his face into his paws, sobbing in agony. The boy collapsed to his side, lying in a fetal position. Panther found himself filled with complete confusion. He'd never seen his victim in such a state of emotional hurt seconds before an execution.

Unable to stand the loss of challenge, he shouldered his rifle and leapt from the top of the building. The silky parasail flapped open with a snap of fabric, sounding almost like cracking a wet towel on a dusky beach. The feline kept the vision of his victim between his heels, aiming for his prey. Once he was only but a story above the street, Panther drew his arms downwards, pulling the sail around his body. He immediately dropped to his feet, landing in a crouched position, just a few yards from Marcus.

"Those who see my red rose… meet death, young Prince McCloud." Panther snarled in a pleasant almost-purring sort of manner.

"Someone else met death here," Marcus said, pushing himself up into a slouched sitting position. "Someone I couldn't save, who begged me to take her life. She collapsed in this very square, right _here_."

"You're a dead man," Panther said, shaking his head. He paused to watch the distant vulpine pilot and scowled at the boy's lack of fight or concern. "There is no life in your eyes, child. Panther, the dark rose of Lylat, cannot _yet_ murder the killer of Krystal McCloud, if he is already dead inside. There is no beauty or honor in such an ending; there is no challenge."

"I don't understand," Marcus said, trying to conceal the fact that he'd been weeping. "You want to kill me because you think I killed a woman who resembled the wife of my father?" He could somewhat sense that much from Panther, who folded his arms, causing the satin parasail to resemble a fancy toga-like shoulder-wrap. Whether it was a cape or a means to cover the silver chest plating of his suit, so as to remain concealed, Panther made it look stylish.

Caruso widened his eyes, baring his teeth in the slightest hint of a satisfied smile; he would soon kill the boy, all he had to do was bring the victim out of such a slump. "It _was_ Krystal McCloud, the media did a DNA test, child."

"No," Marcus replied. "I'm telepathic; we're joined in blood and by the mind… it wasn't her. This woman was a shell of a female who simply resembled her. She never bore me as her offspring; she was never a mother to any."

"DNA does not lie," Panther insisted. "But something about you makes Panther question the Media coverage on this story. Continue, young prince."

McCloud quirked a brow at Panther's nickname but shrugged it off. "She's from another world," Marcus said with a sigh. "It brings me hope that my mother and father are still alive; survivors of a gravity bomb that took them from me. _THIS_ woman arrived here and was from a world where she was abandoned by both Fox McCloud _and_ Panther Caruso. She fled Lylat, hurt and betrayed by its people. She was looked at as a traitor and felt lost as a woman without the simple feeling of companionship. She was the last member of her race, a doomed species of telepaths from a distant galaxy and no one felt more alone than she who was… Kursed."

"You disgust me," Panther groused, placing his right foot upon Marcus' shoulder. "The media claims your impulsive impaling of an innocent woman did _not_ lead to her actual death; it claims she died of a stroke and cardiac arrest that began before the strike."

Marcus glanced up at Panther, eyes swollen from tears but now wide with confusion. "They said _what?_" he asked in a demanding tone of voice. "She begged for death and she was angry that my attack did not kill her. She said she was cursed to live through everything and live in shame with the inability to die. Of _course_ it was my paw that took her life."

"Panther must assume the same, regardless of some silly 'autopsy' report." Panther turned his back on the prey and folded his arms once more. "It was the Media's way of trying to claim your innocence as you are their savior in other ways. A farce, you killed her and must pay for your crime against the fair space-flower, Krystal McCloud. Chin up, so we may battle as men do!"

"Just do what you've come to do," Marcus sighed. "I've lost my parents, my way, my faith and my hope. I don't know my child, I have no chance of leading a successful team and I've murdered a woman with my bare paws; I'll never sleep at night for the rest of my days. Simply conduct your deed, assassin. Then, be on your way. I've already been told you were coming; my Grandfather warned me that you would come to finish the last of my species… go on, do it."

"You are a broken sort," Panther scowled. "It is not honorable, daring or in the least bit _sexy_ to take the life of a dying man," continued Caruso with a shake of his head. "You offend Panther Caruso, child of Fox and Krystal. She was to be Panther's bride and she abandoned _me_ without explanation or an apology… she hurt Panther exactly the same way your father hurt her. She was confused but… _I_ never gave up hope or _my_ feelings for her."

"Neither did my father," Marcus snapped, leering up at the killer. "He just didn't know how to properly display his affection for her and worried for her death. I am a mixture of her open desire of affection and love, yet I don't know how to be the perfect future husband for a woman, struggling _just_ like my father. But now I'm being denied the ability to try and father my own son. Can you possibly understand what that feels like, Mister Caruso? You have no child but nothing keeps you from fulfilling that piece of your life, except for the inner shame you bare: that you've been _rejected_. Get over it, she went back to him, married and they had children. You hardly knew her; you had very little history together. Me? I have all that with a woman and then she disappears, bares my child and hides it from me. _Why?_ You tell me that, since you seem to know _everything_ about me. Tell me _why_, goddess-dammit!"

Panther took a step back, narrowing his eyes. The boy had the ability to be ferocious and his fury and turmoil were all that seemed to be left of a dying heart. Caruso closed his left paw into a fist then leaned forth, snatching away the rose into his right paw. "This belongs to Panther, you do not deserve the honor of this beauty; your weeping does soil it and your attempts to make it a lewd object serve only to insult Panther!" He took the rose and hid it into his cape or suit, _some_where. It seemed to almost disappear with a mere flick of his wrist.

"Somehow, I sense that we're not finished," Marcus muttered.

"No," Caruso agreed. "Should you find a rose in your future travels, it would do you well to write a Will."

"I'm hurting inside; you have the power to stop the pain. Do it," Marcus challenged, standing up slowly. His paws balled up into fists and his resolve became a distorted metaphor that outwardly projected the scorn locked away in his heart. "Why would you back off of a victim? Do what you've come to do, Panther Caruso. Murder the son of the woman you claim to love. Do it, so that when she comes back from the abyss, she will scorn your very existence. Do it, Panther. Kill me!" He had a staggering slouched stance but his back straightened and his chin lifted, angry that another person would flaunt murder, desecrating these grounds of the deceased woman known as Kursed. "Kill me, you freak! Make her proud of you, why don't you? Pull your weapon and do the deed, you goddamn lunatic!"

Panther suddenly reached out, striking the fox across his face. The echoing sound of a slap could be heard, similar to a florescent bulb popping against the pavement. Marcus' eyes widened, his pupils narrowing to pinhole-like vertical slits. Caruso slapped him once more, the second time as an insult. "Pull yourself together; you have the _blood of a leader_ but you do not act as one would! You ramble like a melodramatic cur! It is an insult to Panther's ears!"

"I'm here to find a woman then take my team to strike the heart of Venom," Marcus growled, his anger bubbling audibly at the base of his throat. "If you're mourning the death of my mother, you're probably mistaken. That woman's name was KURSED and you're a fool to avenge a being who sought death as a release into a world of asylum. SO either kill me or leave me alone, so I can find Vivian Hare and finish my job." He then screamed, "DO IT!" It was a dare; a challenge. Panther was disgusted.

"We'll cross paths again," He warned, reaching out to smack the pilot across his face once more, bruising McCloud's snout so that it resembled his ego and his heart. "When Panther respects you or becomes impressed by your achievements, we shall battle to the death as _real_ men. You've earned no such honor this day. You have, however, insulted Panther claiming He has been…_rejected_. That simply cannot be possible. Krystal was not yet over Fox McCloud, simple as that. Defeat Venom and grow as a man. Our fight shall be bookmarked to a future date, when you… are emotionally stable. Vivian is safe, resting comfortably in a hotel, not far from here. She is a beautiful spirit; do not tarnish her radiance with your sobbing. Panther is insulted by your presence. Adios, Chico. We will meet again when you grow from Muchacho and into manhood. Don't disappoint, Panther will be watching you closely, Little Prince."

He then drew a blaster, pointed it directly into the pilot's face and pulled the trigger. The powerful stun blast caused the todd to drop to the ground. His muscle coordination and equilibrium failed and the ground rose up to meet his face. Panther, insulted by his prior rant, kicked dust up over his fur-matted muzzle then turned about on his heels. "Fare-thee-well, but know that even the likes of your mother could not resist the charm and class of Panther Caruso. Yes, for He is a beautiful man, sexy and charming: all things that you are not! It is true, for you are too much like Fox McCloud to know such a sangfroid demeanor."

The aristocratic-featured feline dropped a lily upon the reynard's nose and left the area just as gracefully as he'd entered it. Marcus struggled, pushing his paws into the dry earth and ashes, attempting to push his torso away from the ground but his muscles were still numb from the stun at pointblank range. He struggled, slipping in and out of consciousness, trying to pull through this moment but he labored to remain awake. Finally, his body and his heart collapsed, dragging him into the depths of temporary slumber.

* * *

_…"Fight ME, damn you!" Marcus McCloud shouted in anger. But… he was not yet Marcus; no, he was still known as Star at this point and was seconds from sullying his innocence. Did he really kill her? He couldn't remember now, but she now stood before him, leering at him with an evil smirk. How could an Autopsy show that her heart collapsed from a coronary when he pierced it himself? Or did he? He couldn't remember but it all flooded back in a sharply detailed memory… _

"_No, we're one in the same," She said, shrugging out of his grip. "But **he** isn't worth our time. You know, I really think you would make a good match for Bliss," Kursed added, picking her staff back up from the street. She swung it hard, connecting with Star's hip, striking him down once more. She then kneed the pilot in his face, causing him to collapse to the ground. "I'm a trained bounty hunter and assassin. You're an adolescent snot-nosed punk. Stop embarrassing yourself."_

_She turned back to Crimson, lifted her staff and approached the male. Holding the jeweled end directly above his head, she took the staff in both paws, opening her stance. "Send Hell my regards," She said, giving him a moment to look up at the ornate staff that would be his undoing. Crimson's eyes dilated, looking up at the weapon directly above his head._

_Kursed's upper body tensed in preparation of the lethal stabbing maneuver she was about to deliver when her jaw suddenly parted. Her eyes shrunk, those onyx pupils becoming merely a grain of obsidian. Her body froze for a moment as terrific physical pain consumed her. A slow sigh of relief passed over her quivering lips. A sensation of emotional content filled McCloud's mind and guilt immediately consumed him._

_In his paws was his mother's staff, identical to her own. It extended from his palm, lancing through the air between his paw and her torso, buried deeply in the woman's back. The beautiful tip of the jewel-encrusted spear reemerged from Kursed's stomach, tainted with a coating of her partially blackened blood. A single word danced over her tongue. "…Wonderful." To Star's complete confusion, she felt elated and complete, if only for a moment. She wasn't aware of it yet, but this was not the end; she hoped that it would be but was moments away from feeling completely cheated, once more. _

"_Thank you," She added as her body gave out beneath her. The vixen crumbled to her knees, the enlarged head of the staff becoming dislodged from her flesh. It dripped of her liquid essence. Drenched in her sanguine vitae, the staff was discarded, landing in the murky charcoal-colored pool that collected upon the pavement. Star, unable to believe what he'd just done, wrapped his arms around her, guiding her back into his embrace. _

_He sank to his knees, drawing her body into his lap. Her paws went limp, releasing her own staff to the ground. The clattering noise echoed in the corners of his memory, screaming the metallic syllables with perfect clarity. She looked up at him with a frown, her beautiful green eyes sullied with streaks of onyx that could only be seen from such proximity as this. He didn't remember seeing this before; it was fresh, new and hideous. He was gazing at her aura which illuminated her eyes, the window to her tarnished soul. _

"_I do have regrets," Her words echoed softly, muddling the sound of her staff which had clattered to the ground only seconds prior. This dream was a twisted memory of what should have been a reality from long ago… or did it just happen? Crimson sat up, watching in silence but appreciative of the fact that his friend would kill to save his life. Or was he _really_ there? For some reason, Marcus… Star… couldn't find his friend, anywhere around them. _

_Kursed continued, already beginning to slip into the abyss, telling her doppelganger's son, "I may not belong in this world but it brings me relief and peace to know that a relationship with Fox was possible in some form or another, in some way. If I played my cards right, I'd have held him in my arms instead of in my claws. I … I still love him," She whimpered softly, struggling to form her words. "It's a shame we'll never kiss; he'll never hold me and I'll never see his smile but this escape… It feels like **home**." _

_Blood bubbled up from her burst stomach, filling her throat and causing her to gurgle. Death rattles could be heard in her labored breathing. "I'll finally be with him," She whispered. "If it's possible that I am here, then you should continue to have hope for your parents," She told him. "Thank you for releasing me from my torment, Star." But was she truly released? Death had not yet taken her. This was taking entirely too long… _

_McCloud shook his head rapidly. "I don't want to be Star McCloud. I don't want you to have died to learn this lesson of forgiveness. IF we hurry, a hospital may be able to save you."_

"_I don't have the willpower to continue," Kursed admitted sourly. "I welcome my death," She explained, adding, "Just know that your woman as betrayed you the way my man has betrayed me." Marcus didn't remember that line. It was strange to him… alien in a sense. She smiled wickedly, was she really dying? "You now understand my rejection and loss. But you've be robbed of a son; you're the one dying inside, not me. I've simply been freed…" _

"_How can you allow yourself to be redeemed now, when you're dying?" Star queried, muttering in guilty abandon. "I don't want to be the man who murdered my mother."_

"_You didn't," Kursed told him. "I never gave birth to you but another version of myself apparently did," She told him, her voice crackling with strain. "I finally see the error of my ways in realizing that a long loving life was possible with Fox. The only reason it didn't happen was because of me. I let myself be consumed with pain and caused this to occur. Don't become like me," She warned with her softly spoken voice, strangely adding, "There are those who won't hurt you or abandon you and she has the capacity to fall in love with you if you give her the chance…" _

_A short moment of repose, then Kursed continued, hoping the end would simply hurry. "The pain is finally gone; I can't feel anything but cold," She said in a weak tone. "I wish I could have simply gone back to Panther. I could have been happy with Panther but I was being childish. I could have raised his children and continued my line, happily, in his arms forever!" Marcus felt ill at his stomach. _

"_Star McCloud took a woman's life with his bare paws," said the pilot. "I don't want to be Star McCloud anymore. I can't… I can't be Star McCloud. I hate my name, my identity and… you understood me. Why did you have to try and kill my friend?"_

"_Sweet heart," she wheezed, "Change yourself. Reinvent yourself and, look around, your friend was never apart of this. It's you and me and blood. Can you kill me? Can you finish it, or will I stay here, in pain, with a hole in my chest? Finish it, Marcus!"_

_Star realized that she was reading his mind and nodded in reply… or was she really? He thought that she had said something different and now he wasn't sure. She offered a weak smile and said, "My father's name was Marcus. It's a strong name, he was a good man. And I see potential in you, as a murderer of Krystal McCloud. Kill her, do it, Marcus! Kill her in your heart and mind and forget she ever lived!" _

_Star clinched his paws, sobbing gently. "You don't have to die, you can let yourself be redeemed and live a better life. You're capable of that… you have… potential."_

"_There is nothing left for me, here," She replied. "You've murdered the last surviving victim of Cerinia and this Kurse…this Curse of Kursed must conclude, child." _

"_We should be able to move her," someone in the background said, but Crimson was missing from the scene. "There is a hospital not far from here but I don't know if it's staffed."_

"_Let me die," Kursed muttered. "It's taken too long as it is." She relaxed, waiting for death to take her from her body. It wasn't happening. "Please," She whispered. "Please, let me die. Too many times I've avoided death unfairly. I just want to let go. I don't have the will to go on, make it end!" Her cry was weak in voice, crackling with nearly every spoken word._

"_Mom, we can get help for you," Star told her. "Please, let us help you. You don't have to die."_

"_Let me die," She growled, narrowing her eyes and barring her teeth. "Kill me, goddess-damn you! Finish what you've started so I can return to my mate! Do it!" He lowered his eyes, widening his gaze when he realized that there was a blaster in her paw. It was pointed directly at him. _

_McCloud flinched. "I can't … I can't kill you." She then smirked, flipping the safety off. _

"_Take my life!" She commanded. "Do it… or else…!" She balled her left fist up, causing Star to see an image of Violet, of all people, with a gun to her own head. "Do it or I'll make her die, I swear to you… I have the power to do this, now finish me or your son's mother dies."_

_In the distance, Star could vaguely hear Violet, a person not previously involved in this, protesting but the image of his former mate wasn't speaking. McCloud's lower lip trembled in awe, shaking his head slowly. "No, let her go… please." Marcus' voice of reason was muffled by the powerful force of confusion and illusion. "Stop it!" Star shouted at her._

"_Release me or she will die," hissed the iniquitous vixen with a sardonic smirk. "Only you can reinvent yourself when I'm gone. You despise Star McCloud. Finish me or else you'll become what you hate… a man who regrets every part of his past but has yet to do anything about his future. Release me to release your ex-mate, you're quite wrapped up around her, aren't you, child? Yes, you are; you'd do anything for the woman that betrays you."_

"_No, this has to be a trick," Star said, struggling to see passed the illusion but she was still too strong, mentally. "Violet, nor Crimson, would kill themselves and you don't have the power to force either one of them to do it."_

"_No," Kursed said, disheartened momentarily by his conviction and self control. "You're quite the virtuous man," She muttered, lifting her right paw. Within her fist was that blaster, set to its highest power. She pulled the trigger simultaneous to the illusion of Violet pulling the trigger of her own weapon, which was pointed at her own head. _

"_Stop this, you're being irrational," Star pleaded. "Just drop the weapon and we'll take you to a hospital." He looked down then blinked, seeing a hole in his chest. His eyes lifted once more, shock and confusion plastered on his face. This **was** a dream, wasn't it? Violet's pistol left a gaping hole between her eyes, she collapsed to her knees and smiled darkly. _

"_You'll never see your child," Violet cackled, dying before his eyes. _

"_Make sure, when you kill me, you put the barrel against my chest before pulling the trigger," Kursed said. "Oh, wait. You can't, you're dying, aren't you?" He glanced back down one more time. The hole was still there and he was beginning to die. _

"_No! I'm not going to kill you!" Star said. "Now stop all of this stuff so we can get you help! You're all I have left of my mother and my race!" His plea went on deaf ears. Where was Fara? Fara could have rescued him, couldn't she? _

"_I gave you the chance to save her life," She said with a soft sigh. "But you've only brought her death." She squeezed the trigger and the blaster fired. The beam struck Violet, now, directly in her chest, completely vaporizing Violet. The half-breed avian disappeared, completely gone. Kursed smiled to herself, thumbing the power setting back to its lowest possible setting. "And now the mother of your son is dead!" _

"_NO!" Star barked, snatching the gun from her paw and putting it to her face. "WHY! How could you? Part of redemption is to walk away from your F'ed up past! You shot her, you twisted shell of a woman!" He mashed his thumb in on the power setting, returning the weapon to its fullest discharge setting._

"_Let wrath become you, Star," She said, saying his name in a taunting way. "Finish me; I'm poison, Star. If you don't kill me, Fara and your son will be next. Rid the world of this poison and avenge your ex-lover if you're a real man. Kill me Star. Do it!"_

_McCloud struggled with it. He wanted to take her life so very badly and his body was trembling with trepidation. She continued to chide him, taunting him in a tormenting fashion. "Your mate his dead, you've not acted on your instincts. Isn't that what Peppy used to say? Trust your instincts? You've betrayed them and, in turn, they failed you. Now your friend is dead, Star."_

"_STOP!" He screamed, putting the gun barrel against her but the gun didn't fire. He still had a hole in his chest but apparently it missed his heart. His eyes lowered once more to her paw but now, oddly, she was holding the blaster again. She lifted it, placing the barrel between his eyes. Suddenly, a flash blinded him and a loud blaster discharge was heard. His vision cleared and he found himself gazing at Kursed's empty paw; the gun had been vaporized, causing her to grow angry. _

_Fara Phoenix stormed into the area, throwing her own blaster to the ground. She drew her paw back and struck Kursed across the muzzle, toppling the woman with ease. "I have always loved Fox! He may be gone now, taken from me by fate, but I could never resort to such a darkness or twisted fate! You are not the only one who has experienced the complete loss of Fox McCloud! When I awoke, he was gone from my life and yet I carried on without murdering the innocent! You are a shell of a woman, defeated by your own inner turmoil and self loathing!" She threw her other paw, striking Kursed once more. _

_Marcus struggled, placing his paw over the would in his chest to try and stop the blood from pouring out, spilling over his shirt. Fara struck the blue-furred vixen over and over, pummeling her into a state of unconsciousness. She then looked up at Marcus, smiling softly. She sank down besides the patchwork fox and drew him into her arms, hugging him softly. She saved him from death and kissed his forehead in a way that made the sun appear. Its luminescence bathed the world around them, causing the burning image of Fichina to disappear into a sheet of purity and white. Not cold like the snow, but warm like a comfortable bath. _

_"If you give me a chance and open your heart," Fara whispered, "I have the capacity to love, protect and save your heart. Have patience and one day, I may fall in love with you completely." _

_"But what about Violet?" Asked Marcus. _

_"Behold," Fara whispered, motioning with a sweeping paw. Violet lay only a few yards away, dead. Blood gurgled up from the massive wound she'd sustained, between her eyes. It ran down over the twisted, contorted beak that he'd never noticed before. Her wings were gone, laying separate from her body, bloody and ripped from her. They were ragged stumps of gore connected to her form, which made him shutter from the grotesque image. His heart was pounding rapidly, then Fara placed her paw over his eyes. "Don't look upon it. She is dead to you; her betrayal was not a factor in this matter. You both betrayed one another, but she is still simply dead to you. Open up your heart to find a new love, Marcus." _

_"But," he reached up, touching the star-shaped fur on his face. "This makes me Star McCloud. I don't want to be Star McCloud, he murdered a woman with his bare paws." _

_Fara shook her head, leaning to kiss his forehead. The hole in his chest began to heal, miraculously as her paw caressed his torso with a loving touch. "Bleach then dye your fur, Marcus. Star can be just a memory and I'll rescue you… I'll rescue your heart, Marcus."_

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Suddenly, Marcus McCloud sat up, wide awake, in the bathtub of a Hotel. He could clearly feel the presence of Fara Phoenix, Theodore Toad and Vivian Hare in the next room. To his surprise, he was nude, soapy water covered his lower body. It wasn't especially deep, stopping at a level that was even with the top of his legs, around the lower portion of his waist. His dirty clothing was missing, save for the dusty shoes on the floor. His pants had been laundered, hanging up from a towel rack, but his shirt was nowhere to be found. Also, he couldn't sense Crimson in the immediate area, but Bliss and Dash were not reachable, either. From what he could sense, the young daughter of Wolf O'Donnell was no longer on the planet; Dash didn't appear to be in any measure of proximity, either. Crimson, however, didn't feel quite as far away but he was _not_ here, at this hotel.

His first question was to ascertain the location of his son but nobody was around to ask; the bathroom was otherwise empty. Also, for some reason, he had awoken from this dream with little or no serious worries about where his Son was; something told him that the boy was safe with Katt Monroe and that was all that mattered for now. From what he could sense, Fara Phoenix had rescued him, somewhat like she had in the dream. He reached back to the bathtub spout and turned on the warm water, filling the shallow tub and leaning back in the relaxing, heated water. He was lucky to have someone special, like Fara, on his team and looking out for him.

He remembered her powerfully healing kiss from the dream and smiled inwardly. It reminded him of the kiss they shared, just a few weeks ago. For some reason, the memory of that kiss seemed pure and untainted. For now, his desire was to relax for a few moments then bleach and dye his facial fur. Fara and Vivian were out in the living room and Panther was gone. Theodore was taking a light nap on a lounging chair. Everyone was safe and alive and that's the important thing, as far as he was concerned. Finding dye wouldn't he hard, but he wanted to do it as soon as possible, for some strange reason.

Now that the team had located Vivian Hare, he wanted to begin training immediately so that they could begin what was originally slated as a 'preemptive strike' against Venom. It had to happen as soon as possible, but for now… The bathtub was a nice, recuperative, cleansing sensation. He decided he wanted to enjoy it for a few more minutes before getting out. Also, all he could think about was how nice it was to kiss Fara Phoenix, a few days ago _and_ in the dream… He wondered what it would be like to kiss her again and decided that he would have to take the time to try it sometime soon.

* * *

A/N: _onoes! Switching from girl A to girl B, already! Will he switch back down the road? Then switch again? Maybe 5 more times? Marcus sounds a little confused doesn't he? What if NINTENDO WII gives us a starfox where he is dating Lucy's daughter? HAHA, that would be a hoot! I don't mean to make the poor fox a dang gigolo! At any rate, I have many other stories to update this week :D_

_Love,_

_K-Dawg _


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: _For some reason, this chapter felt rushed to me... but I can't concentrate enough to re-write 13 pages worth, right now. :( Anyway, REFLECTIONS OF THE FUTURE has now surpassed FOURTEEN THOUSAND hits! Thank you! I finished it like... a year ago and it still gets over 400 hits a month! I appreciate that people have enjoyed it! I still get feedback on it occasionally! This story is now closing on six thousand hits but has way more chapters and has been in the works for much longer (i wrote R.O.T.Future in about 3 months.) so I'm really impressed that ROTF is still so very popular! Thanks again!_

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Chapter -20-

**Fara's soft facial expression contorted into **a sort of frown. Her eyes lifted then raked down over 'Marcus' from head to toe. The fennec's gaze then cut down and to the left with a sly smile beginning to creep over the corner of her muzzle as if to show that she was inwardly amused. Her soft emerald gaze, not that different from his mother's own, continued to rest upon the floor for a moment longer. Finally, those dainty lips parted and her voice spilled out in a silvery peel of gentle laughter; she really _was _a rather attractive vixen.

"You're so cute, you know that?" She said. It was a simple statement and, of course, she wasn't looking at him in quite the same lighting. The fact of the matter was simple: he was no further over Violet than he was over his bellicose rhetoric he often displayed towards Venom.

Marcus was noticing every little detail about her… the way she sat, the way she acted, smiled or spoke. It was like looking at art and the overly nerdy way he was acting around her made him feel like he was trying to breath underwater. Of _course_ she wasn't acting weak in the knees or dorky; she was a mature woman with career-minded thoughts and military training. She just gave a smile, shook her head and added, "You're not over Violet, and you just don't know it. It took me a long time just to get over Fox and we didn't even have a child involved; I can't imagine how hard it will be for you to get over her. Besides, Star… _Marcus_… or whatever it is that you prefer now, I kissed you to try and help _me_ get over _Fox_. If you want to tell yourself that I used you, you're welcome to do so but… It wasn't intentional. At any rate, a relationship would be against my better 'professional judgment'."

Marcus frowned thoughtfully. "A simple '_I'm not really interested, but thanks anyway'_ would have been a lot … more… you know, concise, don't you think?" He didn't know what else to say. He wasn't exactly insulted but the rejection _did_ sting to some degree. He began to think that he simply misinterpreted his dream and so he began pacing.

"McCloud," Fara said sternly.

"Yeah?"

Fara shook her head, smiled again then shrugged. "You've got those cute mannerisms that I loved about your father, you know that? The truth is, I can't see myself dating the son of the man I wanted to call 'mate'. _By the creator_, Marcus, he and I had a sexual relationship; it would be _weird_ to have a relationship with _you_. I'm sorry."

"We're nearly the same age, you and I" Marcus reasoned. "It's like if you'd dated a brother of mine first… the thing is, that brother is off in another galaxy now. I'm not making much sense, Fara – I'm exhausted. But what I _am_ trying to _tell_ you is that I'm okay with this, so long as you are. The _'I did someone else, so dating you is weird_' line …I'll buy it if you _really_ believe in it. But that doesn't change how I feel." Not only that, he could sense how she really felt about the matter; she was just avoiding the situation because she felt awkward about having just found out that Violet has a child by him. She wasn't against it but she did want to stay cautious.

"Don't forget," Fara mused. "You're still in love with Violet. She may have hurt you, she may have scorned you and she may have walked all over you… but she still holds your heart by the balls, whether you want to admit it or not. Heck, you might not even realize that it's true because you're angry at her but… I won't be a fallback girl and I won't be "second fiddle". I won't date a man who will feel _awkward_ when she's in the room with you and me, if we were to hold hands at that moment. At any rate, you _are_ special, Marcus."

"Yeah?" He fidgeted for a moment then asked, "How so?"

Phoenix changed her expression to one of mild disgust. "You're the kind of man that is _easy_ to fall in love with," Fara muttered sourly. Her voice changed a bit, putting on a polite, yet professional air of tone then told him, "That's what sort of pisses me off about you, in a sense. It's _not_ that I'm _actually_ pissed off, it's just that I'm partially scolding myself for sliding from a business relationship with you, into something where we are both feeling inappropriate sensations about one another and _someone_ has to be mature about it and put it to an end, you know? But I have no problems telling you that you're cute." She then paused, taking a brief moment to remember what he looked like when she carried him to the bathroom, stripped him down and put him into the tub then put his clothes into the laundry. The young man was certainly an attractive male specimen by any feminine standard.

Marcus caught wind of the flashback she was having, even though it only lasted a split second. It caused him to blush but he refused to stammer over his words and so he spoke slow and careful on his next statement. "I hope you'll eventually reconsider. I don't want you convincing yourself that you're avoiding a relationship with me just because I'd be the second McCloud in your arms and, as far as Violet, it's obvious to me that she has no interest or she'd be here right now, trying to build the foundation of the future 'white picket fence' for a future house for the future family. Call me scorned, but allowing myself to care so much for her is only going to tear me apart so… I'm… I'm ready to move on."

Fara lifted her left paw in a dismissive sort of gesture, saying, "Nothing gets you over the last one like the _next_ one, eh Star?" She then gave a demure grin and corrected herself aloud. "_Marcus_, that is… I don't know, I thought Star was kinda cute. A little cliché but cute. What's with 'Marcus' anyhow?"

"It's my maternal grandfather's name," McCloud said. "For some reason, I like it _more_ than my paternal grandfather's name, you know?"

"It's a fine name." Fara leaned back in her chair. Calling him by Fox's father's name would have been even weirder; she was glad he decided not to use it for some reason. The GreatFox refit was now underway and the team was in standby status, preparing for a strike against Venom which would happen in just another day or two. Practice had gone very well so far and the team was under orders to avoid Corneria while evacuations and bio-cleanup was happening, so that Venom intelligence could be fooled into thinking that the members of StarFox were out of action from a military standpoint. Bill was playing the subterfuge game well, utilizing the media to make Corneria look twice as vulnerable as it really was.

At this point, Marcus and Fara were the only ones on the bridge and after three days of grueling practice, McCloud was growing pleased with the results. The chemistry of Vivian and Theodore blended perfectly with Marcus McCloud's leadership style. There was something missing and he wasn't sure if it was the lack of having Crimson in the fold but young O'Donnell had a far more important mission to undertake for this to be a successful sortie. He was lying low, with special orders to ultimately help put Venom down with this upcoming attack mission.

Marcus blinked himself out of the reverie then whirled around, facing Fara again. "Can I just say one more thing to you before I head off to get some sleep?" To his inquiry, Fara nodded. Before she could make any audible reply to accompany her gesture, Marcus leaned in from where he stood, adjacent to her chair. His sudden proximity surprised her but he was too quick; his lips pressed firmly to her own and the tingle in her blood caused a shiver to run down her spine. The kiss was electric, and yet she melted into it, rather than stiffening up with excitement.

His tongue tip darted forward, pressing against her lips to gain entrance. Hesitant at first, her resistance was lessened as she relieved her defenses. Finally, she simply allowed it to happen and parted her muzzle just slightly. His tongue probed forth and she murred in a coy, feminine way. The soft churring in the back of her throat inflamed his desires causing him to lift his paws, bringing his palms to cup her delicately featured face. McCloud's head tilted just slightly so that their muzzles, their lips, could lock that much better.

His eyes fluttered open just slightly so that he could see if she was looking; her eyes were tightly shut in blissful repose. He wasn't sure why but …just her _scent_ was a massive turn on to him. He'd only had one other relationship before and that ended on a sour note, where as this was new, exciting and refreshing. He _wished_ he could feel like this about Violet again but it wasn't happening. Perhaps it was because of the way she distanced herself from him, but at this moment, Violet was the _last_ thing on his mind.

_Should_ he feel guilty? Was being in the arms of another woman a massive form of disrespect to his son and ex-fiancé? He wasn't sure. As far as guilt went, he could always worry about that tomorrow. After all, he was in heaven at the moment and finally having an instant to be happy took precedence over everything else in his life, if only for a short time. Prescience wasn't his strong suite at the moment, hindsight twenty-twenty in regards to his mistakes with Violet were erased. He blindly followed his heart, desire and the yearning in his blood, becoming intensely passionate in this very kiss they shared.

Oddly, Fara found herself just as lost. She would have felt surprised about the fact that she was feeling these sensations but there was time for that later. As it were, she was caught up in the flame of desire and all those previous feelings of being unsure were temporarily washed away in a sea of hunger for the man who kissed her. His fingertips padded through her headfur and massaged gently at the nape of her neck. Her thoughts vanished, her conscious thought vanished and, so too, did her inhibitions vanish. The kiss continued and it was incredibly delicious.

The constant sound of a proximity alert was already playing on the ship's PA for a full minute before either Marcus or Fara realized that it was blaring like an annoying alarm clock that cuts through the most wonderful dream, early in the morning before work or school. The kiss concluded and both looked down and to the left, pausing for an instant before glancing away to the nearest computer station over one another's shoulder. "Thee… ah," Marcus began.

"…Alarm is going off; we should check it," Fara said, finishing his statement in exactly the same way he would have worded it. She placed her feet firmly upon the bridge's deck then pushed hard causing the chair to roll across the floor. It stopped by the tactical station and she swiveled around in the seat, reaching her paws for the sensor controls. What she saw distressed her to some degree. "A damaged fighter seems to have just materialized from a self-sealing tear in linier space; I'm getting distortion waves similar to a wormhole anomaly. It's closing quickly but the fighter is on our side, it looks to be adrift." Her tone returned to one of professionalism, as she was concerned by this new turn of events.

Marcus was silently cursing the end of the kiss but what she told him did strike intrigue; he raced over to the same terminal she was now at, looking over her shoulder. His browed furrowed, reaching for a sensor zoom key, enlarging the silhouette on the small screen. The wingtips of the fighter were stretched out like fingertips on someone's paw. The front end had a hooked drop design in the fuselage in front of the cockpit. His paws lifted, covering his muzzle.

"What is it?" Fara asked, noting his strange behavior.

"It's… that's the sky claw," Marcus replied softly. "That ship is one of a kind; it belongs to _Falco Lombardi_."

"Oh… my… Goddess," Fara breathed in whisper. She firmly placed her paws against the tactical terminal then pushed hard, rolling the chair across the bridge. She came to stop directly in front of the helm. "Let's check it out," She added, punching in the coordinates. The GreatFox began to come around and within seconds, it was picking up forward momentum. The re-fit tugboat that was docked to the side of the ship was brought along for the ride. The ship was placed on autopilot and Fara, along with Marcus, headed off the bridge, running down to the flight deck.

* * *

**The Sky Claw, a blue and white fighter belonging to **Falco Lombardi, was tractored in slowly, passing through the atmospheric force field at the edge of the flight deck. It came to rest upon its belly and the cockpit canopy was frosted over with icy condensation that quickly formed along the hull from the sudden change in temperature. Both Fara and Marcus approached it with hasty abandon, throwing caution to the wind. Marcus could sense the being inside and yet his heart still skipped a beat when he saw a blue blur reaching up to touch the glass from the inside.

A mechanical grunting could be heard from the ejection manifold jamming. As soon as Marcus lifted up on the manual release lever, the ejection device finished the job, causing the canopy to rush upwards, instead of sliding back along the neck of the fighter. McCloud lost his footing, landing unceremoniously upon his tail on the flight deck. Fara was a bit more graceful, landing on her feet in a crouched position. Both pilots looked up at the half-ejected canopy but the cockpit pod did _not_ eject from the rest of the fighter.

A second later, the canopy dome slammed down on the flight deck, about twenty-five feet away. The dull thud didn't do justice for the grand display of a flying glass dome; it cracked to resemble a spider's web but did _not_ shatter. A feathery pair of hands reached out to the left and right of the cockpit rim and a light grunt was heard as the avian within hoisted himself upwards.

Glancing over the starboard side of his fighter, he gazed down at Fara Phoenix in a measure of surprise. Of course he knew who she was, but he'd not seen her since the _funeral_. His eyes then cut to the port side, looking over Krystal and Fox's son, who had no star-shaped marking over his face. "Where… in the hell am I? Some sort of parallel universe?" He asked to neither of them in particular. "I thought for sure this would get me home where I belonged."

"Falco…!" Marcus exclaimed, standing up from the deck. "Are mom and dad all right? You're all still alive, right? How did you get back here; I saw Andross detonate a gravity bomb and wipe out the entire GreatFox Carrier!"

Falco slid his backside up onto the edge of his cockpit, perched up on his fighter. He then folded his winged arms and cocked his head. "Star? What happened to your birthmark? And what in the world is Fara Phoenix doing here? Didn't she… die?" He glanced back over his shoulder to Fara, standing on his starboard side.

Fara quickly interjected, "I was put into suspended animation; frozen by my parents. Now that medical technology has advanced by a few decades, they were able to revive me. I've not seen you in a few years; you've not seen _me_ in …_decades_."

"Yeah, no kidding," Falco said, glancing back at Marcus.

"I changed my name," McCloud began, adding, "And then I died my fur. It's a complicated story but I go by 'Marcus McCloud' now. There was a few years when I was younger, when my summer coat of fur would be replaced by my thicker coat and the birthmark was hardly noticeable. I opted for that look again for a convoluted reason."

Falco nodded slowly. "All right, to each his own. Your parents are fine, everyone is fine. We can't get the GreatFox Carrier back into this universe… dimension… whatever it is. It took me _two_ tries to cross the barrier. The first time, I trashed my fighter and was injured pretty seriously."

"You? Trashed a fighter and injured?" Fara chuckled, remembering his massive ego.

"I'm still the best," Falco said to the vixen. "But I realize, in my older age, that the competition is stiffer than it was in my youth. Besides, that barrier is no joke. I was hurt pretty bad; I had to swallow my pride for a while but… here I am. No stupid wormhole is going to take _me_ down a notch or two. I nearly collided with an asteroid when coming out of the barrier… it hit my cockpit just as I was fading out of the barrier tunnel. It must have jammed my ejection seat. I hope we can get everyone else over here."

"Vivian and Theodore are _never_ going to believe this!" Marcus erupted with a bright smile. "C'mon down, let's take you to sickbay and maybe get you something to eat."

"There've been some changes you may not understand," Falco said, sliding his legs over the side of the cockpit. His right leg was a completely mechanic apparatus; a bionic implant built by Slippy on the other side of the wormhole. He leapt from the side of his finger, landing upon his feet. The talons of his left foot marked the deck with every-so-slight scrapes. His right foot, from the knee down, hissed softly to release the pressure of the shock absorption. "But it doesn't slow me down; it's just a reminder that I'm pretty much immortal, just not able to heal a severed leg. Sucks don't it?"

"You're far from immortal," Fara said politely.

"You're one to talk," Falco said with a chuckle. "You died and yet… here you are." He approached her then hugged her. "Fox took it pretty hard when you died, you know that? He went _eight years_ without doing … well, _anything_. Then Sauria happened and everything changed after that but… I mean; eight years is a long time to mope, you know? I don't know how they're going to make it back through, the wormhole became incredibly unstable as I began my exit but I'm glad to see that _both_ of you are alive."

"Peppy is dead," Marcus said, ducking beneath the neck of the fighter to join the two on the starboard side of the craft. "…He went in his sleep a few years ago. Very peacefully, I might add. Bill Gray is the acting General right now and we're just a day or two away from Venom attacking Corneria again. They've already hit us with a surprise attack… some sort of new weapon that has been omitted from the history books. Nuclear fusion with a burst of intense radiation. Downtown Corneria is a disaster and we've been commissioned to make a preemptive strike against Venom… the thing is, they hit first to disorient us before the main attack force can launch."

Falco held his hands up, "Whoa, whoa, wait up Star. One thing at a time; Peppy died? In his sleep?" Marcus nodded. Falco continued, asking, "And Bill Gray is the new General but Corneria got attacked by a nuclear strike and you're leading a new StarFox team in to strike Venom, yeah?"

"That's the story in a nutshell." Marcus lowered his eyes, then added, "I'm going by Marcus now. Star is a kind of…. Tainted name. It's hard to explain but …I'm just… Marcus now."

"It's cool," Falco replied. "I can respect that. Isn't that Krystal's father?"

"You knew?" Marcus asked, quirking a brow.

Lombardi nodded. "Yeah, we've lived together for a few years on that ship." He then gave a shrug. "She and your father have grown passed that little thing with Panther and uh, you know, all that stuff. They're happier now, as a married couple, then they were the first few years of the marriage. I know that's all personal stuff but, when I was your age, I would have loved to hear that about my parents, so now you know. Heck, I'm not even sure if you knew she and Panther dated so… I guess you know that now, too."

"I found out the hard way," Marcus said then glanced back up at Falco, trying not to have looked at his leg. "Panther attacked me recently. He thought I was responsible for the death of Krystal McCloud; he's still got a massive crush on her and it's… well it's pathetic. I don't care too much for him. Whatever; anyhow, I'm sorry about your injury. Let's head down to the galley where you can meet Vivian and Theodore. We could _really_ use your help in this fight against Venom."

"I'll help but after that, I'm heading to Corneria," Falco told the two vulpines. "I want to look up Katt Monroe and see how she's been and… I want to make sure she's not remarried. Then I'm going to try and figure out how to get Fox and the rest of them back over here." His words caused Marcus' stomach to drop.

"Katt's not remarried," McCloud said weakly. "She still wears her ring but… There are some complications," He muttered softly, beginning to walk towards the main doors. Falco was quick to follow and Fara brought up the rear, waiting to see just how Marcus would react when talking about Violet and the baby because then she'd be able to decide if she should regret the kiss on the bridge or if it was worth the exhilaration she'd felt over it.

"This is a really, uh," Marcus ran his paw back over his headfur with a soft sigh. "You're going to punch me in the face, Mister Lombardi."

"_Mister_ Lombardi?" Falco said, chuckling in an almost nervous way. "What did you do kiddo? Whatever you tell me about Katt won't result in me punching you in the face, unless you dated her … which I doubt."

"Promise me?" Marcus insisted.

Falco threw his arms up in the air, half amused. "Jeeze Laweeze, I won't punch you in the face, kid!"

Marcus took a long, slow breath. "Let me start by telling you that you have a grandson named '_Falco Lombardi_'. Katt is raising him."

Falco blinked as the trio continued down the hallway. "Are you freakin' serious? I'm a grandfather? But if he has my last name, does that mean that Violet _isn't_ married?"

Marcus, half expecting for Falco to be upset, began a quick-worded ramble and yet he clearly enunciated each word. "Well, I asked her to marry me but she just disappeared one day and next thing I know, she appears out of nowhere, telling me that I'm the father and I was like 'what?' and she was like, 'I named him Falco Lombardi, after my father' and I was surprised and I didn't know what else to do, then Corneria was attacked and she and her mother left the planet to go somewhere safe and all hell is breaking lose and I don't know what happened to her and… I had _no idea_ until just the other day!"

Falco stopped in the middle of the hallway, causing Fara to stop. She stayed back a few paces, watching as the avian pivoted on his left foot, facing the younger pilot. He folded his arms, looked the fox over then said, "…Violet can be damned stubborn sometimes. You still want a relationship with her, right?"

Marcus opened his muzzle as if to confirm his question but the word didn't pass over his lips. In that brief pause, he thought of all the ways this could go from here and yet he couldn't sense what Falco would do because Falco was too impulsive to judge. He simply said, "She seems disinterested in a relationship with me and, after a very long, unsettling end to what I thought was a happy relationship, I've recently ended my pursuit to give her the space she seems to prefer. I'm sorry, I _really_ tried."

Falco threw his arms up into the air then turned back towards the hallway and began to walk again. "Maybe I can talk some sense into her. But she's the kind of girl that likes to be left alone about certain things. When it suddenly becomes her idea, down the road, you'll have your opportunity again. You're my godson, whether your parents told you that or not, so I have to treat you a little like a son in their absence, even if you're _not_ my son-in-law. But, to be real honest… and call me selfish if you want, but I'm just damn glad that Katt is still my wife."

Both Marcus and Fara were relieved that he was taking this so well. On top of all that, Falco quickly added, "Congratulations on a boy; but it's okay if you name him 'McCloud'. It's not too late to give Violet a brother, as far as I'm concerned." His words left Fara to blink rapidly at the suggestive comment that he made, regarding sex. "I'll help you strike at Venom. Who's leading this thing? Dash?"

"No," Marcus said, stepping through the double doors to the cafeteria with Falco and Fara behind him. "Dash's government was overthrown a few years ago and Andrew Oikonny was using Sauria as a base of operations to quietly negotiate a strike force to begin a civil war on Venom. The whole time, he was distracting Corneria's eyes from it by single handedly terrorizing Sauria."

Fara continued where Marcus left off, saying, "We flushed him out, he began his strike on Venom early and we tracked him back to the capital in time to see it collapse. Next thing we know, Andrew has arranged an attack against Corneria and is assembling a massive strike force armada to finish the job. Dash is angry and wants to fight Andrew for rights to 'the throne'. Now he's a temporary ally."

"Damn," Falco muttered as the group walked in. Both Theodore and Vivian glanced up from their meals at a table in the middle of the room. They were thrown into immediate shock, seeing Falco Lombardi step into the room. Falco continued speaking as if nothing special was going on. "It's like, I leave for just a few years and the whole Lylat system goes to hell in a hand basket. Is my daughter still a huge nerd about mechanical stuff?"

Marcus nodded. "She's got her certifications and a degree in mechanics," McCloud confirmed. "She's been working a job, from what I understand, to support the baby but… I think she quit to come and try to fly with StarFox. But after the attack on Corneria, I think she's having second thoughts about the safety of her mother, son and herself as a mother. I've not seen her since Corneria was hit."

"That doesn't sound like Violet," Falco mused quietly. "She's as impulsive as me. Sitting down and trying to make mature, rational decisions about a kid is like saying I'd never touch a beer again because I have a daughter and a wife. I didn't get trashed as much but you don't just stop drinking your favorite beverage just because you have more responsibilities. You just work around it and try to be a responsible drinker. It's not like I drank _every_ day, either. But bourbon and a beer didn't hurt when you wanted to relax, either."

No one had anything to say. Lombardi then glanced up to Theodore and Vivian and nodded to them. "Hey kids. So, Marcus right? Are these two good pilots?"

"Yes," Fara chimed in. "They're _damn_ good pilots. We've been practicing as a group for the last day or two, to get ready for this strike. We have a pilot already standing by to help sabotage the defenses and we've got _me_. And… I'm glad to hear that Fox has been happy with his wife. It helps me get over him much more easily."

"…Sure," Falco replied. He then sat down at the dining table with Vivian and Ted then told them, "Are you two ready to be StarFox Pilots? This isn't going to be easy, kids."

"So," Vivian said with a slight grin. "The legendary pilot, Falco Lombardi, is going to help us take Venom down a notch or two? What happened to your leg, Mister Lombardi?"

Falco held his feathery fingertips up. "Enough with the '_Mister Lombardi_' crap, guys. It's 'FALCO', all right? Next, I'd like to say that I'm going to help you guys rip Venom apart. Finally, my leg is fine. It's a bionic implant and is way freakin' better than the real one. I can run without stiff knee joints in my right leg; I may not be as young as I used to be but I can do a whole lot more again, now that I have it. When is this strike?"

"Soon," Theodore replied.

"I want to see Katt first. Even if it's just a communication," Falco told them with a stern nod. "And after the strike, I want to go and do my own thing for a while. I've got a lot of stuff to finish around here. The top thing on my list is my marriage, followed by getting my friends back from the other side of that damn wormhole. So, let's get it in gear, huh?"

* * *

**Katt Monroe's eyes widened** ever so slightly. She was sometimes bubbly and around Falco she was normally boisterous but having thought he was dead, she wasn't sure _how_ to react. She simply crashed into his arms, drawing her paws up and placing her palms against his chest just to feel his heart beating. Her naturally gray fur, once dyed pink, was pressed into the crook of his neck and she simply sobbed in relief.

Falco's beak parted to say something but thinking better on the situation and not wanting to sully it, he wrapped his feathery winged arms about her body, resting his head between her ears with his eyes shut. It was a beautiful moment, really. Nothing else mattered right now; they were safe on the refugee transport, Garoas-6, on course to the planet Aquas.

Several generations ago, Corneria's porous, volcanic stone had shaped the planet's history in many ways. There were caves, tunnels, stone arches and crevices that had been carved from the rock by the planet's many streams and rivers. Throughout history, Cornerians had used those rocky refuges to hide from oppressors. In times of war, the citizens fled to the hills, huddled far beneath the ground, safe, until the fighting would end. Entire cities had been built in the larger cave systems to house the refugees. When the war would end and the people would return home, they would refer to it as "rocking out" but times had changed. The technology of modern warfare made those systems of underground dwellings completely useless anymore. It was still ingrained in Cornerians to flee for safety in desperate times and Katt chose to relocate her family to the underwater city of "Bacoon" on the planet of Aquas.

Falco had rendezvoused with the transporter, Garoas-6, en route to Aquas and was granted first-class emergency clearance to land on the ship's freight bay. He'd flown an Arwing, something he'd not piloted for several decades. And now, here he was with his wife in his arms; everything felt surreal for a moment. "Daddy?" The voice came from behind. He glanced back over his shoulder with a father's soft grin, bringing his tired eyes to bear on Violet.

She dashed forward and he opened his left arm to her, drawing both girls to himself. "I want you both to know," He began, his voice softer and less cocky than usual, "I'm going to help out Fox's kid in a strike against Venom. I'm not going away or anything, I'm just making sure we don't all have to go running away. It took me a long time to go from living on Eladard, to living on a cruiser to having a place on Corneria. You're both safe on this transport to Aquas so…" He paused for a moment then stepped back, using his left and right hand to lift both of their chins. "Stick it out, be tough and I'll come back when that punk-ass chump, Andrew Oikonny, is rotting under the rubble."

"You're leaving already?" Violet asked, upset as if someone just gave her a new car only to take it away.

"Birds and cats… living underwater?" Falco scoffed at the thought of it all. "As far as Fox's son, we have to talk about him later, young lady," Lombardi said to his daughter. "_Both_ of you are too young to be having kids. The way he's acting, he's never even seen the boy. But from the way he describes things, it sounds like you're over him so… who am I to judge your decision to break up with him? Hell, I just want you two to be happy. You know I love you both," he told them, adding, "But I have to get this strike in gear before Venom is ready to launch a full assault."

"…Falco, we're both capable pilots," Katt reminded him. "Let's go do this as a family or something. C'mon, I still have a score to settle with Venom forces."

"The 'Catspaw incident' was a long time ago," Falco chuckled inwardly. "But you and Violet have a baby boy to take care of, I hear. I want to see him before I go back and for the sake of my godson, I'm taking a picture with me. Besides, if they attack Aquas, who's going to defend it?"

"All right, you win," Katt said with a soft sigh. "The baby is asleep; Violet," She continued, turning her head towards her daughter, "Go check on him. Your father and I have some catching up to do. We'll be in, shortly." She then turned back to Falco, waiting until Violet was just beyond earshot, then said, "You'd better not die on me… You have a lot of explaining to do and I want to know what in the hell happened to your leg. But first… My room is this way," She said, snatching his feathery right wrist.

* * *

**The GreatFox II Cruiser sat adrift,** powered down at the edge of Sector 'Z', a dark shadow of gray in the dark background of space. At the edge of a massive orange nebula in the shape of a 'Z', it was the perfect hiding place for the time being. Only life support and primary sensors were active, leaving the ship to resemble a large asteroid to the long-range scanners of the Venom imperial fleet. The borrowed Arwing, flown by Falco Lombardi, found its way to the landing deck and settled down next to the Sky Claw, which was in serious need of repairs.

He dismounted the fighter, pulling a photograph of his grandson from the silver jacket he wore then sighed softly. "I hate drama," He muttered softly, shaking his head. "Why can't these damn kids ever get along? They don't even realize how young they are; I had no delusions of having a relationship when I was their age, no matter how much Katt begged. It seems almost ironic that Violet is the one avoiding McCloud; she's more like her father than I'd realized." The soft echo of his words returned to his ears causing him to stop talking in mid-monologue. Falco was _not_ the type of person to talk to himself out loud. He could only surmise that the personal-life situation was actually getting to him for that to have occurred.

Lombardi lifted the photograph and looked over the baby with a bit of a smirk. The kid was attractive and in Falco's mind, that meant the boy would be popular with the girls one day. Really, the ole' bird couldn't be prouder. He left the flight deck and headed through the main doors, making his way down the hallway. It only took a few moments for him to reach the crew's quarters and it didn't take long for him to locate Marcus' room; it was the same one he used years ago as a kid.

The living room was dimly illuminated by he could see around the dwelling well enough to see that the door to the bedroom was shut. Falco flipped a light switch on the wall then his eyes fell on a lavender jacket on the backrest of a chair nearby. It was Fara's flight jacket; her name was embroidered on the front, below the left-side collar. He didn't know what to make of it; would he feel awkward if Marcus and Fara were in the bedroom together right now? Was she simply here for a conversation at some point of time and forgot her jacket?

Falco wasn't the kind of guy to get mixed up in the semantics of other people but it would be weird, knowing that his daughter and his godson had hooked up before now. Or would he just not care either way? He wasn't sure how he'd feel until the day he walked in on Marcus and Fara together. Then again, he could be reading too much into this and for all he knew, Fara and Marcus could care less about one another. Either way, seeing Fara's jacket in McCloud's room was interesting at best.

He approached the bedroom door and pressed his finger in on the call button. A weary voice crackled over the speaker built into the wall. "It's open; I'm dressed." The doors slid apart and Falco stepped in, squinting while his eyes readjusted to the darkness. Under the blankets, Marcus was fully dressed in his flight clothing obviously ready for a moments notice should GreatFox come under attack.

"Hey kid, I brought you a picture of your son," Lombardi said. The doors slit shut behind him, leaving the avian to stand in the darkness. "So… out of curiosity, are you and Fara…? You know, having a relationship?"

"Hardly," McCloud muttered through a hoarse voice, sitting up in his bed. "She's half-regretting the fact that I kissed her yesterday afternoon. I don't think it has anything to do with finding out my father is still alive; I'd have sensed that much. Can I see the picture?"

"Yeah, I brought it for _you_. You're my godson, and all that jazz… I've gotta look out for you, right?" He knew that if he'd been in the escape pod instead of Peppy, he'd have been the one raising Star… or rather, _Marcus_. He reached his free hand out, brushing his palm across the wall until his feathery fingers touched the light switch. Square panels in the wall began to incandesce until the room was moderately illuminated. Falco then approached the fully-dressed pilot and handed over the photograph. "He's going to break some hearts when he's your age, no doubt about that. He comes from good stock on all sides, as far as I'm concerned."

Marcus took the picture into his paw, his eyes shrinking into vertical slits from the lighting in the room. He held the photograph up in the lighting and studied the photograph, trying not to cry or act weird in front of another man. Normally, he was pretty good at balling up his emotions the way his mother and father would do but this was a life-altering situation and the tears slipped down his fuzzy cheeks without delay.

"Just between us," Falco drew out slowly, "I cried a little, the first time I saw Violet."

"Just a little huh?" Marcus said, not looking up from the photograph.

"Fox told you, huh?" Falco shrugged it off.

"I've got my mother's telepathy," Marcus reminded his godfather. "Apparently you remember it quite vividly; something else is on your mind too."

Lombardi nodded slightly. "Yeah, I thought it was a little weird that Fara's jacket was in here. You guys dating?"

"I asked her out," Marcus replied in a flat tone. "She said no. It's not that she won't, the way Violet refuses to date me… It's just that she wants to make sure I'm over the mother of my son before moving on, that way things don't get complicated. I tried to kiss her again last night and she gave me the cold-shoulder of rejection. I guess she's not ready yet."

"You're supposed to let the girl sweat over _you_ for a little while and _then_ make her dreams come true. If you're _too_ easy to get, she might eventually feel like you were just a dating convenience that 'went too far'."

Marcus shook his head in disagreement then said, "Not everyone will wait as long as Katt waited for you. Fara won't date me because she doesn't feel that I'm over Violet enough, just yet. But how can I get closure when she pretty much ignores me?"

"Man," Falco lifted his feathery azure palms and said, "I might be married to a woman and I might have fathered a woman but that doesn't mean I understand a woman. Why do you have to date _anyone_ right now, anyhow?"

"I guess it's in my blood, I don't know," Marcus said, kicking the blankets off. He was still holding the photograph and his eyes never left the glossy square of synthetic paper. "I feel like I'm compatible with both Fara _and_ Violet; that they would make a great mate. But after nearly two years of distance, I hardly know Violet anymore. Fara, on the other paw..." He trailed off, glancing up at Falco, finally. "This is weird, I can't really explain this to Violet's dad. You know?"

Falco shrugged it off, again. "Well shit man, I _am_ your godfather. Peppy isn't around to talk to and your parents are on the other side of a collapsed wormhole. What about your best friend you used to hang out with? He still around?"

"Crimson thinks I should go out with Fara," Marcus replied with a light, nervous chuckle. Falco didn't really respond. McCloud glanced back down at the photograph then said, "I wonder how dad would feel about me trying to pursue a relationship with his …uh… 'first'."

"He's married, man," Falco reminded the younger McCloud. "Fara is rich as heck but Violet has your kid. I talked to her, like I said I would. She's saying that she's interested in a relationship with you but there is too much going on in her personal life to even think about dating anytime soon."

"What kind of excuse is that?" Marcus blurted out, his jaw dropping in disbelief. "There are millions of couples our age who have a kid, so how can she be _too busy_ for a relationship? What does she think a marriage is? _That_'s a relationship, right?"

"She's got my 'loner' complex from when I was her age," Falco surmised aloud. He then shrugged yet again and said, "At first, I was kinda pissed off at you about the whole situation but I talked to her about it. She said she felt you weren't mature enough to handle the whole situation yet so she disappeared. Then she realized how easy it is to be a single mother because she can raise the baby any way she wants and she was doing her thing without any worries. She feels that she doesn't need a financial provider because she's already making ends meet without you and, while she is still interested in having you as a mate, it's not her first priority by any means right now. Then I realized that you felt she was being distant and so I couldn't really hold it against you. I'm not the traditional dad; I know that, so… my advice is to do whatever comes natural; after all, that's exactly what _she_ is doing."

"Do you even realize how awkward this is?" Marcus simply asked. "Yes, it's true I'm not over her but to sit down and talk to her father about advice concerning my decision to move on in my life without her… that's just… it's weird."

"Good grief, kid," Falco mumbled. "Stop being so melodramatic, life isn't a soap opera. Anyway, I'm going to head to bed. I'm whipped, thanks to Katt; we should get an early start tomorrow. The sooner we punch a hole in Andrew's face, the sooner I can get back to learning how to be a dad and a husband."

"Learning… how to be a dad and a husband?" Marcus blinked at him. Even as a telepath, he wasn't exactly sure how Falco meant for that statement to be taken.

"Yeah, foxie. You go your whole life learning how to do shit like that the right way. If you go several years away from your family, you were missing out. The sooner we get this mission done, the sooner I can go back to trying to make it happen just right. And hey, who knows, maybe if things go well tomorrow I'll consider rejoining your team or something. That's a big 'if' so don't get your hopes up. I still have to figure out how in the hell I'm going to get my team back to Lylat."

"What was it like over there?" Marcus tried not to bite his lower lip in anticipation to find out.

"I'll explain it later," Falco replied flatly. "I'm not much of a story teller type, you know? Although I _will_ say this… I was a little jealous, seeing your parents doing so well in their marriage. They were doing better than when they first started it and I was separated from Katt, you know? Hell, it's complicated. Anyhow, I'm pretty tired and my knee is aching from standing on this damn fake leg crap." He then headed for the door, but paused in the doorway. Falco glanced over his shoulder and added, "But don't you _dare_ think this thing holds me back or took me down a notch or two. I'm able to leap up into my cockpit from the flight deck again, like I could when I was your age. And I could still take on your entire team by myself, save for Phoenix on your wing. Anyway, 'night."

* * *

A/N: _Incase some of you didn't know, I'm in the middle of a move right now. It's taking longer than expected and there are a lot of tensions in this group of people I'm rooming with. 5 furries, 3 of which are easily frustrated by one another. The long and skinny is, it's a pain in the tail to get anything done lately. My mood has been kinda somber and worn down from all the complaining and I can't get five minutes to concentrate on anything. I guess this is part of being divorced… not having your quiet, relaxed little family in a tight knit home… suddenly you're living with a bunch of people who are trying to learn how to get a long in a way that makes a reality television show look like a cakewalk. _

_We could call the show "FUR AND LOATHING". Lol fuggit, yo. I'll churn out better paced action oriented chapters in the near future though. I've been working diligently to finish my Sly Cooper story, since I've only got 2 or 3 chapters left until it's completed. I'm in a blitz to get it done. Lol. _

_Then I'll sit down and put my full concentration on this story _

_:D_

_I promise!_

_I'm not taking a break from this or anything; I just want to slow my pace so I don't post 'crap' like THIS chapter was. The next chapter will be of a higher caliber … see ya then! _


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: _SORRY it's taken so long! October 24th to April 14th is a long time to wait for an update. I won't make you wait that long anymore. I've moved back to Maryland and all this other horsecrap but hey, I'll make it up to all of you. I wanted this chapter to be perfect and I hated the first several versions of it. I had to bounce ideas and drafts off of two separate editors just to get the feedback I needed to proceed and, when it all came down to it, a random reader turned out to give me the inspiration I needed to figure out where I wanted to go with the chapter. Thank you all! _

_-kit

* * *

_

Chapter -21-

**The Arwings sitting on the flight deck** were polished and ready to go at a moment's notice. Fara Phoenix turned about, hearing the footsteps of Marcus and gave him a polite wave. She could see the look in his mismatched blue and green eyes and approached him.

"Not wearing your green contact?" Her tone belied her concern with a professional voice.

"No." His concise reply predated a short pause and a sigh. He then shrugged and offered a lopsided sort of smile. "Fara, I think we should run another patrol. But this time, I want to split the team and achieve multiple objectives. I'm here to ask your advice before giving orders."

"What's your plan?" she asked.

"I want to recall Crimson; I'll send both you and him to patrol the area for recon. That way, if the team _is_ under surveillance, we look as though we're still lying low. Also, if the GreatFox is attacked or if either of you come under fire, I know I have excellent pilots ensuring that I have a ship to come home to, you know?"

Fara nodded. "Meanwhile, you, Falco and the kids are doing what?"

"Well," Marcus began slowly. "We've already decimated their fuel line to Fichina but only because of Panther Caruso, killing a third of the Venom platoons. In fact, I do believe that he is to blame in Venom's eyes. That's his fault; he left witnesses. I want to take Falco, Ted and Vivian out to test them under fire."

Phoenix flicked her right ear, sliding her paws down to her pockets. She leaned back against one of the Arwings, looking casual. "What did you have in mind?"

"I wanted to take down The Behemoth. It's a capital ship in use by the Venom Military. They're using it as a carrier for several _mercenary_ squadrons. I want to wipe out the fighter cover, land on the flight deck, and lay in an autopilot course for Venom's primary defense satellite. Then, we'll withdraw to our fighters, leave and watch as the Behemoth collides with that defense satellite. If we're lucky, they'll assume it's an accident and by the time an investigation is conducted, we'll have disarmed the first and second wave of their attack force. We'll publicly take credit for it after the strike begins in two days."

"Are you sure the pilots are ready?" she asked.

To her question, Marcus could only nod his head. "They're ready. I sense they feel eager; my gut says that it's time to begin phase one. As soon as Venom is distracted with the destruction of their primary defense satellite, we'll send two full teams out to strike their supply lines in two separate places. Then, in two days, we hit _everything_ that's left. In forty-eight hours, I want to have decimated Venom's main assault force. There is no feasible way for Andrew Oikonny to have assembled enough ships for an all-out war. His idea is to shut down the new General and overwhelm Corneria with a strike force."

Fara grinned at the boy. "And your logic is based on the fact of…?"

"A strike force!" Marcus exclaimed. "That's what StarFox is! A strike force! A squadron or a cluster, larger than us but… these pilots haven't seen combat in ages. It's going to be a far cry from the size of the Venom Fleet back in The Lylat Wars. This is a theoretical cakewalk." The pilot gave her a grin of confidence and lifted his paws as if to ask, '_well?'_ then dropped his paws to his hips.

Fara nodded. "There's only one reason that I think this will work," she mused thoughtfully. "Only because I'll be on the first wing and Falco will be on the second wing."

Marcus nodded in an attempt to look emphatic. "I took that into account; it's my ace-in-the-hole." The thick, bushy, gray-furred tail swept around his waist, curling about his hips. He then told her, "I want to fly immediately, without warning the General. That way, we have the element of surprise, incase the Venom Intel is far better than we'd realized. I'll get Falco and the other two and we'll leave immediately. As soon as we're clear, I'll send an encoded subspace message to Red. When he returns, you and he can head out. When we strike the supply lines, I'll have Dash and Bliss fly on your wing; you'll lead. If they're willing, that is."

"Understood." Fara gave him a reassuring smile. She turned back to the Arwings then said, "I'll prep your fighters. Good luck, McCloud."

Marcus wanted revenge after seeing Jane Flowers, struggling on her deathbed. He wanted to take to the skies immediately and he wanted to feel productive as soon as possible. "Thanks." His voice sounded somewhat sullen.

Fara canted her head towards the Arwing but Marcus shrugged in reply. Fara turned towards him again and put her paws upon her hips. "What's wrong?"

"It's complicated. Jane is dying. I can't even begin to explain how this is hitting me. I can't even see my own kid but I'm raising a dying child and she's on her deathbed. I've fathered this girl more in the last few days than I've done for my own son and… I'm about to lose her. I can't… I just…"

"What do you plan to do, McCloud?"

"I just need to be productive," he said. "I need to push towards Venom and do my job and keep striving to move forward. That's what I'm going to go and do, right now."

Fara's reply held a professional tone. "That's the attitude you need to have to be successful. Make sure you do what Falco tells you; he's experienced and you're not. It might be your squadron but his calls are far more qualified than your own. He may be cocky but he's kept himself alive this long on his own merit… make sure you play by his rules because they're the rules of a hardened survivor."

"Thanks for the advice." Marcus left the flight deck and headed back to the bridge to call Falco, Vivian and Theodore. Marcus had all the motivation he'd ever need, now. He felt ready to take immediate action.

Fara remained in the flight deck. She prepped the automated computer system to ready the fighters then made her way into the flight deck prep office. She sank into a chair and booted the security computer, calling up the security image vault.

She punched in a camera number then a time and date. Fara reached to the computer's speakers and turned them up. She watched on the screen as Marcus McCloud lowered his face into his palms, sitting in the medical room. Her empathetic gaze flitted over his expressive and emotional face. She understood his hurt; she recalled the look in his eyes which seemed to mirror the look on her parents' faces, sitting over her own dying body, before she slipped into a coma several decades ago. It felt like last year; she looked up from her bed at her mother and father, struggling to live. She remembered succumbing to the darkness and waking up almost three decades later.

Fara leaned back in the chair, watching the security footage from over an hour ago. On the screen, Marcus began speaking through his palms, saying, _"This has been far more taxing than I ever realized but what I'm going through doesn't even hold a candle compared to what you've endured this week." _

_ His eyes lifted, peering through his fingers at the dying little girl, Jane Flowers. The young skunk, about thirteen years in age, turned her head to face him. Respirators covered her muzzle and IV lines ran to her wrist. She might have received better care on Corneria but with the war going on, Marcus opted against taking her back. He sensed her strength; it felt warm and surprisingly strong. He placed a paw on her forearm and the strength he felt brought about a look of hope on his face. _

_ "I look awful," she muttered. She ran her fingers through the veneer of fur that lined the mattress all around her body. The patchwork girl's eyes delved into the soft emerald-matched hues of Marcus. Her attempt at a smile turned into a sour looking face. Her gums were dark red and her eyes were pinkish and sunken in a bit. All around her sad looking eyes, the skin seemed puffy and swollen. "Are you wearing contacts? Eh, sorry, I just noticed; like I said, I look awful." _

_ "I'm telepathic." Marcus tilted his head a bit then frowned in a thoughtful manner. "And you're very attractive on the inside; besides, it will take more than just sickness to make a pretty girl less than beautiful. And to answer your question," he started, trailing off into a pause. McCloud took a long, deep breath and said, "Yes. My eyes are mismatched, blue and green." _

_ Jane gazed back at the dim-lit ceiling. "I bet your eyes are prettier without covering up who you are. Anyway, I appreciate your sweet words but… I'm just a kid. I hardly know what I'm missing. It's up to other adults to fawn over me and say they feel terrible that I'm missing out on this and that. To me, a 'prom' is just a word. My license is a quarter of my life ahead… that's right, four years is a mere quarter of my life and driving is still that far ahead. Why should I be depressed over things I'll never understand enough to miss out on?" _

_ "Stop," said McCloud, lifting his paws. He turned away, sick at his stomach. "You're missing out on some things that neither of us has had and yet both of us surly understand… like seeing our first born child's first smile, first laugh… first tooth, first step… Surly we both have a right to mourn missing those things, despite our lack of understanding." _

_ "You'll have more in the future if you want," she replied. "I'm sure you'll make up for it, then come back and be the best father you can to the first child, too. So, let me ask you this, are you wearing those contacts to hide some part of yourself?" _

_Marcus lowered his eyes to the floor and sighed. "Again, your logic is as flawless as it was back on Corneria, last week. You're a smart little girl; it seems unfair that such a mind would have to die so young." _

_"Cut it out," Jane muttered. "Don't weep for me. Don't you supposedly have enough to weep for in your own life? Don't cry for the dying. I never did like that kind of attention. Sorrow for the damned is wasted tears; I've had a little time to think about my future and that's what it is… damned. You know, that robot of yours tells me the truth." _

_ "What truth is that?" Marcus folded his paws, hunched over on a stool. Falco Lombardi came into the medical bay but remained quiet; Marcus could sense his presence joining the room. His face telegraphed the knowledge of Falco's proximity by cutting his gaze to the far left only to pan his green-matched eyes to her and said, "The truth that you're dying?" _

_ Jane's firm attempt to seem stoic seemed hampered by her sickly tone. "It's as true as you changing who you are… dying your fur and wearing contacts just because you don't like who you are." _

_"Not to mention my name," Marcus said in a soft voice. He reached his paw up, removing the contact from his eye. He took the green-hued film and flicked it towards the nearest trashcan. "Maybe you're right but I've grown fond of 'Marcus' because I feel it's a fresh start. I can mold that name to whatever meaning I deem necessary in my life. So, are you just slowly losing sensation in your body; I don't understand how this is affecting you." _

_She closed her eyes for a moment, pursed her lips together and sighed through her nose. "My cellular breakdown is causing my insides to deteriorate. He estimates that I'll pass away within the next eighteen hours." She glanced over Marcus' shoulders, seeing the avian cringe. _

_ "I have a daughter," Lombardi said, approaching the young skunk's bed. "She wants to prove to everyone that she's the strongest person in the world. Believe me, sister, when I realized what women go through when they have to perform physical labor while on their period or while pregnant… I realized that they're damn strong. Now, I never actually noticed something like that until my own daughter was old enough to fly, curse and go on dates, but I did eventually notice. You don't need to prove anything to us; you've got our respect. If there is anything this team can do for you to make your last few hours easy, just name it." _

_ Jane cast a dim grin towards Falco. "Ice Cream… and in fifteen hours, an injection of Poppy Flower Sap; know what I mean? Rob said it will make things more tolerable." _

_ "That's a tall order," Marcus replied. "I might have morphine on this ship but it's been sitting for years and I don't know if it's any good. Also, it's legally tricky to give a minor morphine. I'm not a doctor. I don't even know anything about that stuff – I'm not a doctor." _

_ "Did you know that I grew up with aspirations of being a doctor? I was torn; I wanted to do stunt flying in a fighter and I also wanted to be a doctor and save people." Jane shifted her weight in a slight manner. The girl's wilted and pockmarked flesh appeared stressed at her joints and neck. "Everyone in my immediate family was either a primary care physician or a hospital doctor. Even the tutor who helped with some of my home schooling was once a surgeon. If you ask me, it would be a crime to know so much about modern technology only to forgo it in my final hours. Did you know there is a problem where my tailbone joins into my spine? Because of the radiation, I can't feel my legs right now. I can't walk to the bathroom. Finding morphine is a **small** favor. It's not like my family will come back from the dead and sue you; Corneria City is a graveyard. No one has to know; you'll be putting a girl out of her misery… this is one simple plea for the sake of being a humanitarian. All I'm asking for is a release from the pain." _

_ Immediately following her speech, Marcus turned away, standing up from the stool. His thoughts, betrayed by the emotional look on his face, returned to Kursed, the dying doppelganger of Krystal McCloud. She only asked of one thing: to be released from her pain by any means necessary. She gave McCloud a similar guilt trip, begging for him to kill her so that she would no longer have to endure pain. _'I can't kill another female just because she asks me,_' Marcus thought to himself, running his paws through his headfur. He took another deep breath with his eyes burning a metaphorical hole into the wall. "Do you know what you're asking me to do, Jane?" _

_ "Kill me in a few hours." Her words were sharp, they cut deep and they affected the fox deeply. She could see him cover his mouth with his paw in reply. "Marcus, it's a mercy ending; I don't want the pain and it's quickly becoming intolerable. Within the next few hours, I won't be able to stand it anymore." _

_ Marcus glanced back at her, his eyes wide with a painful memory. "I killed a woman who begged for death before I met you." He took a long, slow breath then added, "I see her face in my nightmares. I lost a part of my humanity; you're asking me to do it again." _

_ "No," Jane grumbled. "I'm asking you to redeem your humanity instead of leaving me here to rot away while I'm wide awake, unable to even… writhe in agony. Rob told me everything… The liquid in the discs of my lower lumbar are diminishing rapidly. Within a few hours, the joints of my spine will be pinching my nerves. My flesh will be rotting off and I'll be covered with open wounds. I've already obtained painful bedsores on my back and legs. I'm not talking about a simple rash." _

_ Even Falco remained silent, stunned from her intelligently spoken, cold, caustic words. His beak parted just slightly but no words passed over his tongue. After a moment of nearly gaping, the avian managed, "I'll go get that ice cream. I'll only be a moment, kiddo." _

_ Jane smiled a bit. "Who'd have thought I'd have StarFox waiting on me hand and foot in my last hours?" Her smile broadened a bit then a hint of sadness returned to her sunken eyes. "How should I be so lucky; thousands are making their grave in the cold street, covered in ashes, how can I deserve a better fate than those people? As far as I'm concerned, I'm the Cornerian Queen. I have no room to complain even if I don't get the pain killers. Perhaps Rob, your robotic butler, will be willing to comply." _

_ "I'm not so sure." Marcus shook his head and settled back into the stool by her bed. "He's not programmed to break the law or take a life." _

_ "I won't ask him to give me a lethal dose," Jane replied with a flat tone. Her once-black ears, now furless, laid back, adding to the edge in her tone. "I'm asking for medical aid in death; can you at least check your stock and see if it's any good?" _

_ "I'll… I don't know anything about that stuff." Marcus stood up again and turned for the door. "I'll have Rob check on it for you. But forgive me: I can't personally push the plunger on that syringe. It will screw up everything for me. I've already reinvented myself because I felt tainted. I just… you know?" He glanced over his shoulder at her and frowned. "For every dying street survivor, Venom is due justice. It's difficult not to feel racially motivated against them. Part of me, deep down, knows that at least half of the planet just wants peace and to be left alone by everyone. But the soldiers of that planet have gone too far." _

_ Jane weakly lifted her paw, kissed her palm and then blew softly across it. "Good luck, just incase I don't _physically_ see you again." _

_ "You're strong." Marcus afforded her with a smile. "If… if you die, visit me in battle and lend me your strength. Watch over me, will you?" _

_ Flowers offered him a soft smile in reply. "I'll do my best to be your guardian angel when I pass. How's that? Don't worry; when Falco gets back, I'll enjoy my Ice Cream and everything will be great. Go attend to Venom." She watched Marcus leave then leaned back on her pillow. Moments later, Falco returned with a bowl and a spoon… _

_ He sat down on the edge of her bed and handed her the ice cream. She struggled up, onto her elbows, and kissed the side of his beak. Falco lowered his eyes. "So, say you weren't sick, what would you do next?" _

_ "There's only one way I wouldn't be sick," she said with a frown. "If I could go forward into the future, to a time and date where medical technology could save someone from advanced radiation sickness and reverse everything. And if I could manage such a feat, the next thing I would do is to have a second bowl of Ice Cream, how's that? Then I'd probably go and attend the flight academy and be _both_ a pilot and a doctor. They could call me Doctor Barrel Roll as my piloting handle." _

_ "That would… be cool," said Falco. _

_ "You can call it my 'dying wish' if you like. Wishing for a painless release is a plea for a favor, but if I had one dying wish… it would be to have a second chance. Cliché, but it's the same wish everyone else wants: To be able to achieve their childhood dreams." _

_ Falco continued the small talk. "Well, you could always fly with my grandkids, in the future. It's always handy to have a medic on a flight team."_

Fara ended the security footage with the touch of a button. She had a little time before Crimson would be back and she had a plan to help Jane Flowers. She knew what she had to do. Fara stood up, left the office and headed towards the medical bay.

Falco stepped out into the hallway and looked up, face to face with Fara. "Oh… Phoenix, hey. She's asleep but it won't last long… might be her last nap she's ever allowed to have."

Fara shook her head. "No, she'll have one more and it will be a long one."

Falco smirked. "That's cold, don't you think?"

"Not the way you're thinking," she replied, folding her arms. "I'm going to have to move her, Falco. She doesn't have much time left and it will be a little while before Crimson returns to GreatFox, so we can run our patrol."

"Move her?"

Fara nodded. "I'm taking her to Eladard. I have to hurry, before she dies or it will be too late."

Falco lifted a cobalt wing, placing his palm on the fennec's shoulder. "Wait, what's on Eladard? It's a rich planet, covered in endless city and industry. They have good hospitals, but no one has the technology to save her, yet. She's just too close to death for modern medicine."

"Exactly," said Fara with a confirming nod. "I know what she's going through, Falco. Modern medicine couldn't save me, either. I'm taking her to Eladard; don't tell Marcus anything that will cause him to worry, Falco. He needs his mind on the mission. I saw in his eyes that he's accepted her death and it's empowered him to take the fight to Venom with gusto. Meanwhile, Jane gets her dying wish; who knows, maybe she'll fly with your grandkids, Falco."

"How'd you…?"

Fara lifted her paw and placed it on the avian's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Just go finish readying the ships. I've not got much time to get her to Eladard. I'll have Crimson meet me in orbit and we'll go from there to our Patrol destination."

* * *

**Wolf O'Donnell settled into an office chair**, watching a flat screen monitor on the office wall with some measure of interest. Ever since Bill Gray began building hype for StarFox in an attempt to slow down the gears of the Venom War machine, the media picked up the story. Now the news began running background stories on the members. Star McCloud apparently changed his name to Marcus while Crimson became known as the team's _ace_ pilot.

Now there were rumors that they acquired three more pilots and the recently awakened Fara Phoenix. Speculation, on behalf of the media, mentioned that rumors from anonymous military sources claimed the other pilots had some relation to the old StarFox team. Wolf leaned back in his chair, placing a paw on the armrest, pushing a few buttons with a contemplative look on his face.

A wireless earpiece in his right ear came to life, buzzing into the connection. Once the channel became established, Wolf smiled. "Dash, pal, how're my kids treating you?" A pause, then, "Oh, you don't say? Caruso? I've not seen him in quite some time. …Oh, no, I still associate with Powalski; look, come by my office. I have a business proposition for you. Bring Crimson and Bliss; I want to do business." Another pause then Wolf added, "Yeah, the fall of Shray-Lek was bad business for everyone and I felt the bite on my… company. I'd like to arrange something special and get you back in power. All right, see you then, Bowman." O'Donnell closed the line and smirked.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the line, Bowman closed the channel and glanced over at Crimson with a frown. "Change of plans; I'd like for both of you to come with me on a business errand." The three of them sat in a small room with a card table in the center. Their special transport ship looked unique due to the triangular design. Shaped like a pyramid, each of the three sides held a docked fighter against the hull, belonging to the twins and Dash.

"Whatever; you're paying me and you're paying StarFox," Bliss said, adding, "So, go ahead and change the heading already."

Dash stood up from the table and walked into the cramped cockpit. A moment later, he returned and sat back down at the table. Bliss stood up, stretched and headed back to the cockpit for some space, leaving Bowman and Crimson together. They exchanged quiet glances, causing the moment to turn awkward.

Finally, Crimson broke the silence and asked, "So what's it like?" Dash furrowed his brows in confusion, prompting the young O'Donnell to elaborate. "You know, being the grandson of Andross. The great hero of Venom and the Lylat Super-villain."

"I hardly knew him. My father was not much better; I joined the academy on my own and I struggled for a while. Everyone has such strange expectations of someone like me and so every time I got into the cockpit, I felt like I was flying against him. My mother never talked about 'her father' and was glad when her marriage caused her surname to change, but then tragedy claimed them and life actually became easier. What about you – being the son of Wolf O'Donnell and all?"

"He's a real bastard. He might as well have been dead," Crimson mused with a shrug. "Whenever we did talk, he couldn't talk about his work. He couldn't elaborate on anything because if it got out, it would be bad business… that sort of thing. He got a bad name for dealing with Lylat's scum but redeemed himself by helping StarFox against the Aparoids and Anglars. I shrug it off and yet people still judge me because of my blood."

Dash nodded in understanding then said, "The mind makes the man, not the blood."

"We're a lot alike, you and I," Crimson said, adding, "We both fly to escape our family's shadow." A noise came from his pocket, prompting him to lift his left paw and hold up a single finger. "One sec." He then opened the communicator and said, "Yeah?"

Crimson listed for a few moments to the voice on the other end then smirked. "Is that so? I bet his wife and daughter are tickled. So, did he confirm that everyone is still alive? …Really, now. That's amazing; you don't feel awkward now, do you?" Another moment passed then he glanced back up at Dash, still listening to the communicator. "All right, I'll be there soon. There's one more thing I have to do, first. Don't worry, _this_ errand is on the way; wish the other pilots good luck on their run and I'll see you soon."

"Good news?" Dash asked.

"Something like that," replied Red. "I've not seen my old man in quite some time. I wonder what he'll say about my upcoming mission. Anyhow, let's hurry there. I'm going to have to head back to help my team as soon as possible – something came up, you know?"

"So be it." Dash nodded. "I'm paying your sister to work for me, not you. You're not obligated, although it was nice to have the added protection on behalf of team StarFox."

* * *

An hour later…

Dash Bowman, Bliss O'Donnell and Crimson O'Donnell arrived at Wolf's space station outpost. The trio stepped into the office where Wolf turned about to face them. He pressed a button on his desk and the television monitor on the back wall faded to black. Bowman looked ready to talk business. Crimson looked stoic and Bliss simply smiled.

"Hey daddy," she said, approaching his desk and sliding up onto the mahogany surface. "Crimson can't stay; apparently he's been recalled; he has to meet with another StarFox pilot in Eladard, outside of sector Z. I think it's for a measly patrol run with Fara Phoenix."

"That's a shame," O'Donnell said, turning to face his son. "Long time no see, boy. I hear you've turned some heads; Corneria is singing your praises. They don't even mention me or your sister."

"Yeah." Crimson nodded, approaching the desk. "About all that… here," he said, throwing down five thousand credits. "Thanks for the loan; I've got myself covered now. It was a good start but it's just chump change now. Give it to Bliss for _her_ team." He smirked.

"Ah, you've finally grown a pair of _balls_," Wolf replied, taking the plastic money chip. He then slid it across the desk to Bliss and added, "The real world has the power to make or break a man. I'm glad to see my kid making a name, even if it's second fiddle to someone else, living their life in the shadow of Fox McCloud. How's that feel, anyhow? Living in the shadow of someone else who lives in a shadow?"

Crimson shrugged, keeping the smirk plastered on his face. "I kinda know how Falco Lombardi feels now."

"Falco; that moron has a horrible attitude," Wolf snorted.

Bliss tilted her head. "Mom's always liked him."

"All the more reason for me _not_ to like him," Wolf replied. "Anyhow, he's gone so why should I worry about _that_ pilot?"

"If you say so," Crimson replied. He'd never mentioned the private communiqué from Fara Phoenix that he'd received while on Dash's ship. Crimson then smiled and shrugged his shoulders again. "Did I ever tell you that StarFox has more contacts than you could have possibly realized? It's funny, really; we're even flying the same GreatFox, fully loaded with a professional inventory. You know me, pop; I stayed up all night until every gun was right where I want it. I physically put my paws on every single piece of equipment." He then turned to his sister and said, "Ever held a Dragon Sniper rifle? No? Really? What a shame, they're amazing."

"Satisfied with being second, huh pup?" Wolf chuckled. "It's all right, carrot top. At least _one_ of my kids has their _own_ team with aspirations of running StarWolf one day soon."

"It's a shame it'll be a second rate team compared to mine," Crimson replied, maintaining his calm, biting his tongue with a smile.

Wolf looked mildly surprised. "Hmm, that usually gets under your skin; did you finally get laid for the first time?"

The young O'Donnell turned, first to his father, then to his sibling. "Oh, no not yet; I just became a made man first. I wouldn't want someone like Carey holding me back." Crimson cut his eyes to his sister and smirked at her.

"I'll admit," Bliss mused, touching her fingernail to her chin. "You're quite a pilot, Crimmy. You never attended the academy and yet you handle a fighter like a professional. But when it comes to a kill score, you'll always be second rate. Heck, I don't even know if you've got what it takes to be a legitimate 'ace' pilot. You sure don't have the kill score for such a title."

Crimson turned his eyes back to his father and said, "I came with these two in order to return the loan. I was on orders to watch over Dash and Bliss but my new orders are to head to Eladard and fly a patrol with Fara Phoenix, through Sector Z. When Venom's new mini-militia is in ruins, I'll take a short sabbatical from StarFox and go to the academy. McCloud plans to go, too. I understand he did a few classes earlier in the year before his family disappeared but what most people don't know is that he was class valedictorian that year. Yeah, he doesn't tell anyone because it coincided with his parent's death and he likes to pretend that year simply didn't happen… but there it is and now ya' know."

"The first year is all academics, you don't even fly." Bliss turned to her brother then added, "Furthermore, the closest you come to flying is training in the gravity simulator. Neither of you are certified combat pilots. StarFox is a huge joke with Lazarus as their ace in the hole. She can't stop Venom with a bunch of kids dragging her down. I'm glad _I'm_ not the one babysitting you people…"

Red cut his gaze to his sister then shrugged once more. "Fara Phoenix isn't our _only_ ace in the hole," Crimson replied. He then made the hand-gesture of a gun with his left and right paws, pointed at both his sister and his father. With a confident stride, Crimson began to back out of the office. "Catch you losers later. We'll compare kill scores when the Venom dust settles. And you guys know what? I don't expect either one of you to be impressed or to voice your family pride over my future achievements. That's why I'm bragging for myself; it'll be deserved." Crimson backed up to the doorway and turned to Dash then said, "Good luck with these losers, old man." He backed through the doorway and shut it behind himself.

'_Now to blow this pop-stand and meet up with Fara_,' he thought to himself, hurrying back to the flight deck. '_I can't believe Falco is back… I'm really glad he was able to confirm that the entire team is alive; I wonder how this will affect Fara, knowing Fox is still alive but married,'_ he pondered, heading for his ship.

* * *

**An hour later**, Fara Phoenix and Crimson O'Donnell met in orbit above Eladard. He moved into formation besides her ship and the two fighters descended upon the planet's surface. Her Arwing's computer transferred the flight plan, a triangle of navigation points that ran through part of Sector Z and swept back towards GreatFox. He followed her into the planet's orbit, unsure as to meaning behind the unscheduled first stop.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team ascended upon Macbeth under the guise of stealth camouflage. Marcus, Falco, Vivian and Theodore headed for The Behemoth, orbiting the dusty, hollow planet.

McCloud lowered his eyes to the glossy photograph of his son, taped to the ejector lever. If he had to pull it, he planned to have his fist on the photograph – just incase. His eyes lifted, taking in the disproportionate titanic hull of Behemoth in orbit over Macbeth. McCloud opened a channel to his team. "From here on out, things are going to get hairy. If you don't have a kill-score yet, you will when we leave Macbeth airspace. Theodore, I want you to begin analyzing that monster for weak points and scan their damage levels; transfer that status to our Heads Up Display.

"Vivian, your job is to get in close, plant explosive charges on their turrets and then drop your camouflage. You'll lead their fighters back to us. Falco and I will begin working on their fighter cover and you'll pull back so you can detonate those charges. By then, there will be a lot of bogies in the air. We'll break and attack; the skies of Macbeth will be our playground but watch one another's backside. We're a team, if you're in trouble then do yourself a favor: call for help. Finally, please remember that we need to make this look like an accident. I was thinking we could drive this ship back so that it has no where to go. Let it look like they run into the intended target while fleeing. Okay, we'll be in range soon, so remember our plan. Let's move."

Without a further word on the subject, Vivian punched her throttle. The Jackrabbit fighter blazed through the formation, heading for her goal. She had the fastest ship and, with her recently installed Multi-Lock, Vivian Hare knew that her task would be quick and easy. The lapin pilot moved close to the Behemoth and set a course to fly parallel to its massive hull. The fighter skimmed beneath, quickly targeting each gun turret.

At the end of the run, she pulled back on the flight yolk and rolled over, flying along the top of the large ship. She locked on to each turret and fired a package of sticky detonators which attached to their targets in flawless fashion. She made two more passes, covering the port and starboard hull then came about once more. Vivian piloted her ship back towards the main bridge and dropped her cloak, firing a smart missile directly into the massive windshield.

The Behemoth's shields easily absorbed the energy of the blast but her effective method of grabbing attention clearly worked. She pulled into a half-loop and fired her afterburners, heading back towards the StarFox team. She opened a private channel and announced, "That was fun; I can imagine the look on their stupid faces." She reached her left paw to her chest pocket to calm the furry creature within. Because of the G-Diffusing equipment, Nibbles felt no pressure from her aerobatic stunts.

The colossal bay doors opened on the front and rear sections of the Behemoth. In almost exactly sixty seconds, several scores of fighters launched from either end of the ship. "Well," Vivian said, watching her radar screen fill with dots, "They're quick. They must have the first wave of pilots in a rec-room adjacent to the flight decks. Sixty seconds is awfully quick for a ship that size."

Falco and Marcus uncloaked their fighters and punched their afterburners. Marcus opened a channel and said, "All ships, weapons free; go get'em." Falco's fighter broke from formation and eased to the port. Marcus shifted his flight yolk to the starboard side and said, "I've got everything on the right."

"Are you sure this will work?" Theodore asked, coming alongside of McCloud's ship. His fighter came into a parallel formation.

McCloud grinned. "It'll work; your idea is pure genius, Ted."

"I appreciate the compliment!" Theodore remained adjacent to Marcus' fighter until they were within range of the titanic craft. Young Toad pulled back on his controls, breaking the formation and nosing up into a loop. He continued around in the large arc then broke away, towards the flight deck.

Theodore's ship passed through the large doors, flying into the flight deck. He punched his braking thrusters, skidding across the floor. The ship pivoted about, sliding at an angle along the deck. It came to a stop; hundreds of fighters lined the side walls with pilots hurrying towards their craft.

The toad placed his webbed fingers on a keyboard built into his dash. He punched a numerical sequence code then closed his eyes. Three seconds later, his shields flashed, pulsing with a high power electromagnetic shockwave.

Outside the ship, Falco brought his craft around, facing the front section of the mighty battleship. "This thing is twice the size of Great Commander," he said beneath his breath. The lights on the front section and all the running lights along the keel went silent. He blinked then a broad grin covered his beak. "Hey, the bow is dark; the kid's plan worked!"

Marcus' voice came over Falco's communicator. "You've gotta have faith, _old man_!" followed by, "He has one side left." Seconds later, Theodore's ship hurtled free of the darkened flight deck, blown out of the hanger by the lack of an atmospheric force field. His ship sputtered to life and he pulled up, firing his boosters.

Falco moved into position, alongside of Theodore. "Intense, huh? Waiting for your ship to reboot while getting blown out of the flight deck looks like a lot of fun. You guys make me proud, flying with your balls and your instincts. Just keep that up; put your gut and your gull first with your training second. You'll live longer, you guys. Not to mention, you'll kill more enemy ships."

Vivian's voice came over the channel. "One doesn't need balls to fly like a badass!" Then, to prove her point, she detonated the sticky packs attached to each turret. "You'll be able to access the rear flight deck, now, boys. But let me clear a path for you, first!" The Jack Rabbit fighter moved into Falco and Theodore's path. She powered up her main guns and, simultaneous to opening fire, she broke into a barrel roll. Using her Multi-Lock, she managed to destroy ten targets in unison.

She punched her throttle again, using a pair of smart missiles to take out two fighter formations on the left and right. "Another two squadrons down, add _eight_ more to my count, if you please!" She broke into another barrel roll just in time to deflect an ion cannon attack from above. "May I recommend flying _just_ like that? After all, I wouldn't want people thinking that I don't fly with a pair of…"

"You've made yer point, sister," Falco said with a smug grin. "You can fly on my wing any day, but next time, I want you to do me a favor, will ya?"

The Jack Rabbit did a roll of victory, pulling up and breaking to the left. "What's that?" she asked over the radio.

"Don't hog _all_ the fun!" replied the avian in a half-serious sounding tone of demand. "I mean it; some of those guys are mine! Heh, all right, Theodore… The stage is yours, pal."

Toad punched his afterburners, passing over a wall of plasma boosters. He glanced over his shoulder from the cockpit and blinked in surprise. "It's a mile of plasma engine boosters. I've never seen anything like it." He eased forward on the flight yolk and punched his afterburners. The field of blue illuminated the belly of his fighter, creating a spectacular lighting effect in his cockpit.

Falco moved to the left, chasing after a group of fighters. The two fighters parted ways, breaking formation. Toad rolled over then pulled back on his control stick, angling his way into the rear bay doors, maneuvering between several fighters pouring out of the hanger in formation. They rushed passed him in the opposite direction, causing his heart to pound from the near collision. He punched his braking thrusters and slammed into the smooth metallic flooring, same as before. He shut his eyes and pressed the engage button on his dashboard.

The last of his ship's power drained into his secondary electromagnetic shielding field. The pulse generated an intense flash, blinding all the pilots on the deck. It powered down every electronic circuit and computer chip within a thousand feet. The force-field fizzled out. Sitting on the deck, one hundred feet from the massive bay doors, Theodore's ship blew into space, followed by several dozen enemy ships with fried circuits. An asphyxiated lizard corpse slammed into the canopy glass. The noise startled Theodore, causing him to gasp in shock. Another deceased reptilian pilot collided with the hull followed by a third. Their bloated eyes and frozen, dead stare caused Toad to shutter; a moue of disgust crept across his face.

Vivian's ship came in from above. She activated her magnetic hull plating, the belly of her fighter coming into contact with the bottom of Theodore's ship. She punched the throttle and pulled him away from the carnage. Falco and Marcus moved into position and powered their weapons, charging the main cannons.

Both fighters flew in through the rear entrance, beneath the field of plasma engines. The bottom four rows of engines sputtered into darkness from the EMP attack's range to their internal components. Marcus and Falco's fighters moved in, side by side, then released the energy build up in unison.

Their combined attack took out the back wall of the flight deck, giving the Arwings a great deal of clearance to land, side by side, in large corridor intended for foot traffic. A large blast door dropped from the ceiling, drawn shut by the force of analogue gears designed as a failsafe to seal off the flight deck. The large door continued to lower; remaining enemy ships and equipment slid across the deck, piling in front of the closing door in the last seconds before it sealed off the deck. The two Arwings, two hundred feet down the hall from the flight deck, remained silent.

Marcus opened a channel to Falco and said, "Gauges read atmosphere pressure is returning to normal. Get out your assault rifle, old man. I hope that knee implant is ready to work, because I'll be disappointed if you can't keep up with me."

* * *

Meanwhile…

Eladard upper hemisphere, above North Point University…

**Fara's cockpit adapted a scarlet tint**; Jane peered out through the canopy, looking impressed and excited, in consideration of her health. A dim flicker of exhilaration shined in her sunken eyes. The nearly-furless skunkette licked her dry lips. She winced at the sensation of pain from the lumpy sores that covered her tongue tip.

Fara cleared her throat and said, "My parents donated enough money for this University to build the most elaborate Scientific Research facility on Eladard, maybe in all of Lylat. I slept here for almost thirty years. When they woke me, I was rushed to a modern Emergency Room, where my torso was rebuilt. I was in rehabilitation for about two weeks and then I was put into a special class to help me adapt to the times."

Jane leaned forward in the semi-uncomfortable chair. Unlike Fara's cockpit seat, the secondary chair jutted from the metallic storage section of the Arwing, directly behind the pilot's seating unit. Comprised of a simple cushion that unfolded from the wall, with a hard, metallic backrest, the designed proved itself to be counter efficient in comfort. She hated her seat. Jane glanced down at the veneer of black and white fur that lined the cushion on either side of her legs then said, "I suppose that makes sense; they wouldn't want you to be anachronistic. Failure to adapt could cause undue emotional stress on the victim."

Fara furrowed her brows and cocked her right ear back. "Are you _sure_ you're only thirteen?"

"I…" She trailed off into a cough then said, "I don't like to brag; my parents put me through advanced schooling. I have an extensive education for someone my age. If anything, I'll adapt easily in the future, if this works."

"It will work," said Fara, adding, "Are you _sure_ you're ready to go through with this? It was difficult for me. I mean, I wake up and meet the _son_ of my boyfriend. That was… _weird_ to say the least."

"I can't even imagine," Jane replied in a flat tone. "I've never dated anyone. I feel a little better than I've felt over the last twenty-four hours, though."

"That's the adrenaline." Fara quirked a brow and glanced at her sensor scope. "What in the world?" She punched two buttons on her dashboard and said, "Crimson, are you picking up hostile signatures on the ground?"

The hybrid boy's voice came over the internal speakers in Fara's cockpit. "Yeah, I was just about to ask you the same thing. This planet should be in neutral territory. I actually planned on seeing a lot of Cornerian transfer ships bringing sick and wounded people to hospitals here, but the University's medical center is crawling with red 'dots' and that kinda bothers me."

"Please tell me you're armed," said Phoenix, directing her fighter towards a rather flat gray section on the other-wise textured planet. Peppered with skyscrapers, Eladard's city spanned every inch of the globe. The University of North Point, however, had flat sections sprawling the expanse of the campus.

"I've come prepared, Fara." Crimson changed the formation, bringing his ship adjacent to her own. They exchanged nods through the canopy windows and he gave her a smile. "I have blasters and submachine guns. They're behind my seat; I also have rations and scanners. Pretty much anything we'll need if those red dots really _are _Venom equipment signatures. What's the plan if the Medical Center is overrun by hostiles?"

Fara took a slow breath. Her fighter disappeared into the clouds only to reappear beneath them, covered in rain. "This University is at the top of the Medical Research field, Crimson. Venom may be utilizing the Hospital section for their own needs but this planet is fairly neutral. We'll be going to the science and research department. However, if we're met with resistance, then we'll have to do our best to make it to the cryogenic research laboratory, where I stayed. The scientists there will take her, no matter what. Especially if I offer a Grant. Money talks. We have every much of a right to be there as Venom. And, if we find out that they're there for a less peaceful reason… then we'll have our work cut out for us."

Jane leaned forward in her seat again, peaking out through the canopy, at the landscape below. "And if they've overrun the medical facility? I'll probably be dead in a few hours."

Fara winced at the girl's blunt statement. "I think we'll be okay. I had plans to swing by Sauria on our patrol, to return the dinosaur, but maybe we can use his help or something."

Crimson's voice came over the communication again. "You brought HIM? Are you kidding? Please tell me you're just joking; he's going to get in the way!"

"Crimson…" Fara sighed. "I was trying to be productive. I wanted to have him carry Jane for us and then return him to his home. If anything, he'll be more of a help than a hindrance."

"That'll be a first," O'Donnell grumbled. The hybrid fox-mixed-wolf mumbled something unintelligible then said, "Fine. I had no idea he could fit inside of an Arwing Nova Hatch; he's a full grown freakin' dinosaur."

Fara replied, "He fit… just barely. The increased weight made lift off a real pain, though." She changed the subject and her tone, adding, "Follow me. We should have been hailed for our intent while in orbit and I've not heard a damn thing yet. It's obvious that something is amiss, so we're going to land in the courtyard facing the research facility. I only have an emergency blaster in my hold, so bring some decent firearms."

"I always prepare for the unexpected," Crimson said. "I have plenty behind my seat. I thought someone already took Tricky home, anyhow?"

"Wishful thinking," Fara retorted with a roll of her eyes. "He's been staying out of our way, lately, but Violet's intent to take him home became sidetracked. But like I said before, we should be able to make use of him to help us get Jane to the stasis research lab." She sighed then shook her head. "They're not even prompting us for _clearance_ on final approach. That's disconcerting."

"To say the least," Crimson replied. "_Okay_, we'll use Tricky, you're the team leader. He's just annoying. Besides, I heard you the first time you suggested it. But he's still _annoying._"

"I'm not arguing that fact," replied Fara.

Jane cleared her throat then said, "I think he's sweet. He's come to visit me a few times while I stayed in medical. He's a bit boisterous and what not, but you're being pugnacious towards him."

Crimson's voice returned over the communication's grid. "Okay, I think boisterous means excitable… that's Tricky to the letter, but what's _pugnacious_ mean?"

Jane bit her lower lip. "I'm sorry; I didn't know you could hear me. Pugnacious is another word for truculent. Or, perhaps, contentious… you know, belligerent. Litigious."

Silence. Fara smiled to herself then said, "Crimson, she means we're being aggressive and touchy in regards to _Dino-wonder_."

"I can agree with that," replied O'Donnell. "Fara, look, just call me Red."

"Sure." She guided her fighter down towards the University in manual flight mode. Crimson's plane followed her and the two fighters set down in a cobblestone section. The courtyard remained silent. Fara opened her storage ramp, beneath the Arwing.

Crimson O'Donnell slid out of his cockpit with a duffle bag and dropped to the ground. He approached Fara's fighter, then, with a grin, offered the bag to her. "Choose a few weapons; I'll holster the rest of them under my jacket and on my waist."

Fara dropped from the side of her Arwing then reached her paws up. Jane crawled over the lip of the cockpit and slid her feet around. Then, exercising caution, she slid down the side of the Arwing and fell into Fara's arms. Meanwhile, Tricky squeezed out from beneath the craft, plodded down the ramp and approached the two pilots. Fara carried Jane to the dinosaur and placed the patchwork skunk onto his back. She glanced down at her gloved paws then discreetly brushed the loose fur from her palms. Jane's shedding continued to grow worse, but the girl acted as though the balding situation didn't faze her.

Fara checked the power cell of her blaster, then the energy container for the particle assault rifle. "I hate to be cliché but, if you ask me, it's _too damn quiet_. There should be people coming and going; it's a school, you know? It's almost freaking me out. I can't help but worry for the students… I mean, _where is_ everyone?"

Crimson emptied the duffle bag. He pulled harnesses for holsters from the knapsack and buckled them to his hips then fastened two shoulder holsters to his torso. He loaded himself down with small arms then tossed the empty bag into his cockpit. He turned to Fara and nodded in a confirming manner. "I'm ready, Fara."

"Jane," she said. The young skunk nodded in reply. "Tricky," she added. The dinosaur bobbed his head in an emphatic manner. The gesture suggested readiness. His enthusiastic reply caused Fara to smile a bit. She then turned to Crimson and said, "All right, Red. This is how this works. When we go to the doors, we'll each get on either side. At the door, we'll agree who takes point. As soon as the Point Man goes in, the other person will go in at an angle. If you duck in and face forty-five degrees to right, I'll go in behind you and face forty-five degrees to the left. Follow me, so far? Then, when it's clear, Tricky will follow. Don't take the initiative unless it's an instinctive reaction to save your own life."

"I'll be right behind you," he told her with another firm nod.

Fara cocked the rifle, putting the blaster into her waistband, just beneath the small of her back. She approached the main doors and Crimson tucked to the side, with his back against the wall. Fara kicked in the double doors then dashed to the side, opposite from O'Donnell. She peered in through the doorway and he did the same from the opposite side. Crimson gave her a nod and she returned the gesture.

The half-wolf pivoted on his heel and stormed in through the door with his gun at the ready. He held his right paw at shoulder height, the front end lowered with his left paw, at sternum level. The gun, angled down forty-five degrees, felt hot in his paws. He heard Fara step in behind him and he paused, waiting in the hallway. Tricky trotted in with Jane. The dinosaur looked around, remaining relaxed for the time being.

Fara ran to the end of the hall then stopped at the first intersection. She put her back to the wall and peered around the corner then cut her gaze to the opposite direction. She leaned back from the intersection, turned to Crimson and lifted her left paw. She reached up to her eyes, placed her index and middle finger over her eyes then made the gesture for the number "two" to him.

Crimson nodded in comprehension then came to the edge of the wall, peering into the intersection. He saw the backside of two tall lizards, facing away from the group. Crimson reached into his pocket, withdrew a metal barrel that he'd brought, and attached it to the cylindrical end of his submachine gun. The silencer gave the blunt-ended weapon a menacing look. He brought the sights to bear on the two lizards further down the hall, licked his lips and squeezed inward on the trigger…

A soft mechanical clicking filled the room. Both lizards jolted left and right, torn apart by high power machinegun rounds. The two guards flailed about, becoming riddled with holes before they dropped to the floor. Fara's paw reached out, flipping the safety on Crimson's weapon.

"Calm down, sweetheart," she said, sliding her palm over the top of the weapon. Then, with a guiding touch, she eased his gun barrel down. "You need to relax. Just a quick, short burst of rounds is all you need. Put three rounds into the back of their head to ensure they're down. Don't go wasting your ammunition – it brings down your accuracy."

"I uh," Crimson blushed. "I don't kill many lizards, too often."

"Well," Fara offered a lopsided grin to the boy. "Red, you did well. Just relax and use short bursts. A quick squeeze of the trigger is all you need." She patted his cheek, reached down and released the safety on his weapon then brandished her own, taking point. She sprinted to the end of the hallway and peered around the left and right corner of the intersection. Satisfied, she grabbed the two guards by their collars and hauled them down the hallway.

With Crimson's help, she stuffed them into a janitorial closet with minimal blood on the floor, due to the thickness of their uniforms. Tricky approached them and looked from left to right. "Jane and I found a bunch of those security camera things at every corner. How long before a bunch of people come for us?"

Fara frowned, glancing down at a wrist watch. "That's not Jane's problem, if we're quick." She canted her head towards the next hallway and took off down the corridor. Just as the group reached the Cryogenics research facility where Fara spent a third of a lifetime in suspension, more guards flooded the hall.

"Crap!" Crimson shouted, noticing the group first. Fara brought her gun to the bolt lock on the door and blasted a hole one inch above the handle. The door swung open and she shouldered it hard. Fara turned towards Tricky, plucked Jane from the dinosaur's back and carried the girl into the laboratory. Surprised scientists glared at Fara with wide eyes.

"I'm back!" Fara said with a sing-song voice. Out in the hallway, Crimson knelt down behind Tricky. The dinosaur's neck plating acted as a bulletproof fan to protect the rest of his body. He opened his mouth and inhaled deeply. With a mighty exhale, a plume of thick flame filled the hallway, causing the encroaching guards to fall back.

Sporadic gunfire filled the corridor but, unable to see through the vale of flames, their harmless shots found the floor and walls. Sprinkler systems self-activated in the hallways, dousing the area with a thick rush of water, making visibility at the other end of the hallway near impossible. Meanwhile, the sprinkler systems in each room remained dormant.

Fara, inside the laboratory, helped the scientists to put Jane into a stasis tube. She gave the girl a kiss on the forehead then patted her cheek. "Good luck when you wake up, sweetheart. Everything will be different. There won't be any gunfire or insanity. At least, I hope not." Fara's ears flickered in annoyance, hearing another round of enemy gunfire coming from the hallway.

The skunk offered a thin smile. "Tell Marcus I said I'll look up the McClouds when I wake up," she told the fennec. "Now, go and make sure Crimson and Tricky are all right… and thank you for this opportunity."

"Sure," Fara replied, stepping back while two lab workers brought down the stasis pod cover. Fara's eyes met with Jane's; a thick, colorless gas flooded into the chamber, causing the girl to slip into a state of unconsciousness. The vixen turned to the research leader and said, "The grant check will be larger than I promised. You people are risking your lives by helping us like this. I can't believe Venom is trying to make a move for this planet, too. Here is the girl's identification information." Fara handed the man an ID card for Jane, with her medical history file number for the Cornerian Archives. "Make sure you have all this information intact for when she wakes up, a few decades from now. She'll need it."

The lab technician frowned and said, "You'll need to get off of the planet if you can escape this building. Imperial Venom has this facility locked down, because they're forcing the scientists in Building 3-A to build some sort of bio-weapon."

She made a sour face. "An Oikonny legacy, those damn bioorganic weapons," Fara muttered.

The lab tech turned back to the stasis tube and began going through the procedures necessary to ensure a proper stasis entry for the girl in the chamber. "By now, Miss Phoenix, security teams from other parts of the campus have been notified. You'll have to hurry and leave."

Another round of gun shots caused Fara's ears to perk again. "I'm needed… excuse me." She turned from the scientist and ducked back out into the hallway, moving down to the floor besides Crimson. She gave Tricky a pat on the hip. "How you holding up, big guy?"

Tricky replied, "I'm fine but they're closing in. Let's fall back, huh?" Tricky's tail curled around Fara and Marcus in a protective manner. "We should probably get the heck out of here like, now." A plethora of Venom men shouted to advance in the Venom language. Another round glanced off of the boney plate surrounding the King Earthwalker's head, causing him to flinch. "Both of you get on my back; we don't have time to argue, let's go!"

Crimson turned to Fara, scooped her into his paws then hoisted her onto the dinosaur's back. He mounted the makeshift saddle, comprised of blankets, sitting with his chest against Fara's shoulder blades, careful not to tumble off the dinosaur's back. He reached his right paw out, behind himself, spraying the hallway with submachine gun rounds and hooked his left paw around Fara's waist, leaning into her. Tricky lurched into a gallop, leaving the two pilots to cling for their lives.

O'Donnell's small automatic weapon continued to buck in silence for another moment before the matter-synthesizer containment clip ran dry. He ejected the cartridge which tumbled down Tricky's tail and skittered across the floor; the clattering sound became lost in the ambient noise of the hallway sprinkler system, the shouting and Tricky's high-paced stomping.

"Left!" shouted Fara, clinging to the King Earthwalker's neck. "Go left, Tricky!" She pushed on the right side of his neck, guiding him towards the left intersection fork. More guards, up ahead, flooded the hallway but Tricky lowered his head then jerked his snout upwards upon collision. The large dino bowled through the group of lizards like rag-doll marionettes, throwing them against the wall. Tricky carried Fara and Crimson through the line of soldiers, bounding down another hallway, leading back towards the entrance.

"Almost there!" shouted the vixen.

Crimson fidgeted to reload his weapon and called up to Fara, whose ears brushed his nose from the proximity. "What are all these guards doing here?"

"The lab techs said they have the facility locked down across campus!"

"Why!" he called back.

"You don't want to know, but believe me," said Fara, "It's going to be up to _US_ to stop it. Let's get back to the Arwings, so we can gather aerial intelligence, report to General Gray and plot out some intelligence. StarFox is getting stretched awfully thin; at this rate, we're going to need another whole StarFox team just to help us."

Crimson's weapon bucked to life in his right paw again, firing shots at the lizards behind them, to keep their enemies pinned down. "Not Bliss' team, anyone but them. Okay. Let's fall back and look at our options, then!"

"Right," Fara said, reaching for her blaster. She locked her legs around Tricky's sides and pulled the short-muzzle automatic rifle from her shoulder harness. She lifted both weapons and opened fire on Venom security guards up ahead. With Crimson's arm around her waist and her legs tight around the dinosaur's body, she remained steady enough to duel-wield the awkwardly unbalanced pair of weapons. The blaster bucked in her left paw, not hitting any targets, while the short-muzzle rifle came to life in her right. With the butt stock tucked beneath her right shoulder and resting the tip of the barrel against Tricky's bone-plated head fan, she managed to sweep a clumsy volley across the hallway. She held the weapons with near-trembling paws, fueled by adrenaline.

Once her rifle's cartridge clicked on empty, Fara tossed the heavier of the two weapons to the ground. With the weight off of his protective neck shield, Tricky took a deep breath then expelled a plume of fire, still in mid run. The flames rushed forward, making a path for the group. The dinosaur bashed his way through the main doors, erupting into the courtyard.

"Make a run for the Arwings, go!" Fara barked the order and Crimson leapt from Tricky's back. He dove beneath his Arwing then, without a further thought on the matter, opened fire to fortify their position. Fara rushed for her fighter, using a remote control unit to open both the storage chute and the canopy lid.

She powered her fighter and rerouted the energy grid to her shields, enlarging the bubble to encompass Crimson's fighter. Once safe, he scrambled up the side of his fighter and booted up the computer. Tricky wormed his way into the storage chute under Fara's Arwing and the hatch closed.

"Fara," said O'Donnell over the radio. "Forget about Sauria for right now; we need to get back to GreatFox and set up a secondary plan to stop Venom from taking over this place.. If worst comes to worst, we'll have to come back here and fight them personally."

"Not them," she said. "…It. Like I said, you don't want to know, right now. And you're right, we'll have to come back here, but we're going to wind up exhausting the team; we can't be everywhere at once," Fara replied. "Crimson, I'll have ROB bring GreatFox to _us_. Let's back track. We'll personally meet up with General Gray… He may send us back here with some Cornerian fighter pilots or something… if he can spare them, that is. Venom's on the offense in too many places at one time and, worst of all, they're all _secretive_ fronts; who knows how many moves they're making in one turn. I mean, the way I see it, we have no idea how many more places Venom has set up shop like this. Just think, if we didn't plan to come here, we'd have never found out what they're doing until it was too damn late."

O'Donnell shifted his weight in the cockpit seat. "What is it they're doing here exactly?"

Fara's voice continued over the communications line. "Let me just reiterate: we're going to need more people; that's all you need to know right now. Now, we achieved our goal and we did it against all odds, so we're lucky for the moment. Say a prayer that Venom assumes our intention here was to infiltrate their presence. With any luck, they'll overlook the finer details… Jane's life depends on their ego. By now, her body is being lowered into a chamber, deep under ground where they'll never find her but… call my worry a mother's instinct, you know? It's a woman thing."

"I understand," replied the hybrid son of Wolf over the radio patch. "Do you think we'll get the help we're going to need?"

"I don't know and that worries me more than anything." Fara cleared her throat then said, "We need to exercise radio silence, from here on out, Red."

"Fate has a way of making things happen that need to happen, Fara. Anyways, I'm right behind you." Crimson closed the channel and lifted his fighter from the ground. Harmless small arms fire bounced off of the Arwing's shields; the fighters rose into the atmosphere.

Once in orbit, both Arwings altered their course then laid in the coordinates to Corneria. Fara radioed to GreatFox and arranged for ROB to meet them there.

* * *

A/N: _FINALLY! It took several months on this chapter because I was completely dissatisfied with it. Thanks to Destructor and Lance, a friend from the states and a friend from Australia, I've managed to creep through this chapter and finish it. Also, I need to thank PuffNStuff for some ideas and SirRaphael, Chrono Reaper, blaisercat, and everyone who reviewed chapter 20. I don't remember which one of you suggested it, but… one of you told me the best way to combine killing Jane (what I planned) and keeping her alive (what the fans wanted) was to basically draw a parallel between both her life and Fara's death from when ole Miss Phoenix was supposedly killed almost 3 decades prior. If I could just remember who suggested that, I would mention his name if I haven't already. That REALLY got me to finish the chapter, because for the longest time, I had no idea what to do with her… Remind me who it was! XD _

_Okay, back to writing! I have to finish Chapter 5 of Reflections of Fox, now! Oh, one more thing, I'd like to thank Obsidian Thirteen. He's the one who told me how to update while FFnet's document uploader is crapped out. What a genius, I tell ya! _

_I'm sure they're going to fix this problem REAL soon and then there will be a flood of updates, and this chapter will be pushed SO FAR down the list that NO ONE will read it. Hopefully those who wanted to see this story updated WILL read this chapter... I know some of you have been waiting for it, and I appologize for the wait!_

_:D _

_-kit _


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: _Okay so it's obvious that Nintendo has StarFox in pre-production for the Wii. The creators are way too hyped and they're starting to throw hints.. But part of me actually fears using the Wii-mote as a flight yolk. I can see it now:_

"_If you shake your Wii more than twice, you're playing with it …BUT if you shake it __three__ times, you do a barrel roll!"  
_…_Oh my.

* * *

_

Chapter -22-

**Fox McCloud sat up in bed** in the GreatFox _Carrier_. Six years ago, the StarFox Armada – comprised of two ships, the dreadnaught cruiser with the gooseneck design, and the red-painted attack carrier – came under attack from Andross Oikonny. Even as the dream dissipated, Fox could still smell the smoke rolling through the cruiser's main hallway on the way to the flight deck. His dream faded; consciousness took over. He rubbed at his eyes and panned his gaze about the dark den. His ears flickered at the calm susurration of his wife's breathing. He placed his paws against his muzzle then sifted his fingertips up into his bangs, back through his headfur, between his ears.

It had been several days since Falco disappeared into the wormhole for a second time. The first attempt caused the avian to be injured in a way that seemed inconceivable but Falco turned out to have incredible willpower. His second attempt appeared successful but every test probe sent into the wormhole, following his second run, returned in pieces. The team attempted to recreate Falco's progress by inputting mathematical information into the probe's navigation computer but all attempts failed.

Fox found himself having another bad dream about his friend disappearing. He took a deep breath then sighed in longing. The pilot leaned back in bed, placing his paws behind his head. Without warning, Krystal slid her arm around Fox's waist. Her slender body snuggled into his torso; Fox felt a little better from the proximity. He lowered his right paw, placing his fingers in her hair. "And to think I almost pushed you out of my life," he whispered.

"Men do dumb things, sometimes," she mumbled back, half asleep. Her tail slid beneath the sheets, curling around his leg. "If Falco died, I'd have sensed it. Go back to sleep, babe."

Fox grinned. He loved how his wife always used little pet names when speaking to him. He sifted his fingers through her hair, down to the nape of her neck and began rubbing his fingertips against the muscles, beneath her fur. A muffled churring sound emanated from her throat, vocalizing her pleasure.

"You're rather good with those paws," she murmured.

Fox's grin melted into a Cheshire smile. "I've had twenty-five years to learn every little spot on your body." He continued to press the velvet pads of his fingers into her spine, working down between her shoulder blades.

Krystal's soft, kittenish coos continued. She spoke into his torso, her words barely intelligible against the fur of his body. "You know where this is going to lead, if you keep it up."

"Well if you put it _that_ way," said Fox. He'd come a long way in twenty-five years. In the course of his lifetime, he'd gone from outgoing, to reserved, to shy of romance, to intimate. Since his marriage, he came out of his metaphorical shell and turned into a rather passionate husband. McCloud trailed his free paw over his vixen's shoulder, down her torso and over her hips. He cupped her rump and pulled her overtop of his body.

A tired giggle slipped from her muzzle. She lifted her weary head and peered down at him. Her fully-dilated eyes met with his; their gaze locked in the dark bedroom. She lowered her head until her lips brushed against those of her husband's muzzle. His lips parted, meshing against her soft tiers and the kiss of desire began.

Krystal placed her paws on either side of his face and shivered in delight at the sensation of his touch on her spine. He placed his left paw against the small of her back; she could feel the metal of his wedding ring against the flesh, beneath her fur. His right paw moved back up to her hair, sliding through it. He cupped the back of her head to deepen the joining of their lips.

She trailed her paws down to touch his chest. His heart pounded beneath her palm and his body came alive with the fresh blood coursing through him. She ached for his touch. The sapphire vixen broke the kiss and said, "This is the best part of marriage; making love with your husband in the middle of the night."

"I agree completely," said Fox. He reached down to her rump and pulled her body against his own so that they were flush against one another.

Krystal whimpered softly with need. She lifted her muzzle and brushed her lips against his ear. In a sexy, feminine voice, she pleaded to him. "Tie with me, Fox."

Her desire-filled words sent a chill down Fox's spine. He shifted his weight and rolled over until his weight pinned her into the mattress. In one smooth roll, he managed to capture both of her paws and pin them above her ears on either side of the pillow. Her tail fluffed up and the end began to rhythmically pat the bed, muffled by their blankets. Krystal lifted her left leg and kicked the covers away. She then lifted her right leg and encircled Fox's waist with it.

He grinned at her then said, "I love you, Mrs. McCloud."

She arched her body towards him, insistent for her spouse's proximity. "Mm… and I love _you_, Mister McCloud. Now that your mind is clear and you've relaxed, you can focus on _us_."

"You know, I never really did the math," Fox told her. "I was worried about losing a friend, but you're right… if something happened, you'd have sensed it. I actually feel like I have some hope again." Fox found himself stifled by her lips; she leaned up to kiss him into silence. McCloud took her hint and returned the gesture, kissing her firmly.

After a moment, Krystal broke the kiss again and said, "In the morning, we should go through the wormhole, for ourselves. We'll just follow Falco's coordinates and then we'll be home. Then we can see our son again. I'm sure there's plenty of adversity laid out before us, but we're a team, Fox. We'll tackle it together. Now, let's concentrate on the sex, shall we?"

Fox's grin widened. "You're so demure and lady-like in public; it's always such a turn on to see you so passionate in bed."

Krystal bucked her hips up against him once more. "After twenty-five years, I can't help but be straightforward with you when we're together in private." Her insistent thrusting assured Fox of her arousal. The scent of her desire assailed his senses. He kept her paws pinned to the mattress on either side of her head then leaned down and kissed her again. Fox consummated her request with graceful sensuality. Her eyes softened to a dreamy sort of gaze then immediately fluttered shut. She breathed a sigh of content through her nose, not breaking the kiss.

Both of her legs came to encircle Fox's waist. She could feel him easing his weight off of her forearms. As soon as his paws enveloped her, she lifted her arms and wrapped them around her husband, clinging to him in desperate love and physical attention. His body assumed an age-old rhythm and she moved with him.

The two mates continued on, into the night…

* * *

**The next morning**, Fox found himself on the bridge with a coffee mug. The entire StarFox team was assembled in a picture of satire; the amassed cast of fighter pilots sat at the helm, each pilot wearing pajamas. McCloud couldn't help but chuckle to himself at how silly the team must have looked. 

After six years together, they felt more like family than ever before. Lucy Hare, the now-middle aged daughter of Peppy, sat at the navigation terminal with pink pajama pants sporting little white hearts. She had a long robe on which hung from the backrest of her chair, pooling on the floor beneath. Slippy and Amanda both wore sweat pants and undershirts, matching perfectly, save for the color of their skin. Krystal adorned herself in violet cotton pajama bottoms and one of Fox's t-shirts. The hem of the shirt came to her knees. Fluffy pink slippers contrasted the color of her pants in the most feminine way.

Slippy's home-made pilot droid, Bionic Operating Buddy 128 – a poor rendition of their lost robotic friend Rob/Nus64, who went down with the GreatFox II Cruiser six years ago – rotated its ovular-shaped head and watched the lithe, petite vixen board the bridge. Several bulky LED lights illuminated on its round, nondescript face, to create a smile of greeting.

She glanced about the bridge, smiled at the assembly, and then made herself comfortable in Fox's lap. She cleared her throat and drew in a deep breath. "All right. I think we've all been ready to try this, so… Fox and I agreed that this should be our next course of action, last night. Is anyone against trying this?"

Slippy turned his head back towards the rest of the bridge. "Look at us; now that Falco is gone, we're all reporting to the Bridge wearing PJ's. We're all on the same page, here. It's obvious just by looking at us. I think I speak for everyone when I say… let's go home."

"Amen to that," replied Lucy in a weary voice. "I got up early because I had the feeling that something exciting would happen today. Let's get this over with. I'm going to keep an open mind. Anything could happen on the other side of that wormhole. For all we know, Andross could have conquered Lylat and we'll have to take it back."

Amanda exclaimed, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go and liberate Lylat!"

"…In our pajamas," added Fox with a hint of sarcasm. The group of pilots chortled in reply. He turned to BOB then said, "All right, take us in, BOB. Falco is probably waiting for us on the other side. Come about, full right rudder."

The GreatFox Carrier made a starboard lean, lining up with the wormhole entrance. The massive boosters roared to life and the craft picked up forward momentum. Under the expert piloting of BOB, the carrier sank into the shimmering void. The hull creaked in protest against the pressure change. BOB told them, "Hull containment stress level nearing test limit…"

Toad took his wife's hand into his own. "This ship doesn't have a gravitational diffusing device large enough to protect the entire ship," said Slippy. "In theory we could have _used_ gravity to perform the four dimensional slip, but all we can do is hope it survives a second tumble in the void." The metallic groaning continued.

BOB announced, "Hull stress containment has exceeded maximum test parameters."

Fox fidgeted in a nervous manner. "I put a lot of money in Space Dynamic stocks. C'mon, GreatFox. You're only two and a half decades old; you can handle it, sweetheart." Fox, holding Krystal in his lap, rested his chin on her shoulder, murmuring a soft prayer. His eyes remained on the distorted view screen, his heart pounded, arms about his wife.

Small asteroids and other space debris pelted the hull. Remains of ships brushed against the GreatFox, scraping the paint off as the floating junk brushed by. A gate at the end of the corridor shimmered with rhythmic pulsation. It assumed different hues every several seconds and changed in size at what seemed like random intervals.

"There's a pattern to this," said Slippy. "Falco figured it out by going with his gut. He's not here and we need someone who has a good natural instinct to get us through this. Anything that hits the gate at the wrong interval will be crushed and broken into pieces, which is why you see a battleship graveyard in here. I don't know, we might be too big to make it."

Fox shook his head in disagreement. "We made it through the first time, without being crushed. The GreatFox may have gotten lucky but the gate obviously let us through once, six years ago." He put his paws together, overtop Krystal's belly then took a long, slow breath. He held it for a moment then sighed in frustration. "All stop; ready engines for a jump to flank-speed. …On my mark."

Slippy punched in the information variables from the data collected during Falco's second attempt, cross-referenced with the flight logs from their initial crossing, six years prior. "I still think the Gravity Bomb's detonation may have been what protected our initial passage. This is going to be tricky and… if it doesn't work," he told them while turning to his wife, "…Amanda, I love you."

Krystal smiled, watching the two share a kiss. She glanced over her shoulder at Fox then turned her gaze to Lucy. "Everyone is ready, love."

McCloud nodded then took another deep breath, significantly shorter than the last one. "Steady… Steady… Punch it!" Fox clinched a paw around the armrest of his chair, keeping his other arm around Krystal's waist. BOB and Slippy, both at the controls, piloted the ship across the void which lurched from the sudden burst of speed. The massive carrier slammed into the gate just as it began to expand again; the ship faded into the glowing light…

* * *

**GreatFox, the team's attack carrier,** passed through the void and reemerged in linear space. Its recently shiny hull now looked sullied by pockmarks and lengthy scrapes that ran along the keel and port side. The ship shuttered violently, tilting hard to starboard. Proximity warnings blared over the loudspeakers, followed by a collision detection alarm. The ship grunted again, rattled by an explosion. A medium fighter burst into flames then, due to lack of oxygen, the detonation of its engine core imploded in on itself. The craft's debris scattered across the carrier's hull. 

The engine core, tiny in comparison to GreatFox's behemoth size, bounced off of the polarized hull plating. It sparkled from a plasma fire then disappeared in the glowing booster flames emitted from the vessel's engine thrust. Several other fighters broke formation in an attempt to dodge the emerging carrier.

"This is the Cornerian Elite Air Guard, Diamondback Squadron leader T. L. Benson speaking… Please identify yourselves!"

Fox pressed several buttons on the armrest of his seat, connecting an audio-only channel. "This is Fox McCloud of the StarFox Mercenary squadron. We've broken through the barrier of a wormhole. I hope that wasn't one of your ships that collided with our hull."

"It wasn't," said Benson, his voice tinny sounding over the channel. "It appears that the enemy has fled upon your arrival. Please stand by for an incoming transmission from the CAG." The channel closed.

Seconds later, another incoming transmission opened on a secured frequency from a nearby Cornerian Battle Cruiser. "This is the Commander Air Group, Jonathan T. Bradshaw. To whom am I speaking?"

"Again, this is Fox McCloud of the StarFox Mercenary squadron. Is Lylat at war?"

Bradshaw's masculine voice caused the loudspeaker to distort faintly. "You're in the middle of a battlefield, Mister McCloud. I'm afraid I don't have a registration for your vessel on file. You're in violation of the Lylat Civilian Armistice."

"There must be some mistake," replied Fox over the audio channel. "Over six years ago, we were attacked by a Gravity Bomb and it hurled us to a distant quadrant. We utilized the wormhole as our return gate, seeking to come home. Our flight logs can back our claims and we have no intentions of being hostile. The StarFox squadron's loyalties lie with Corneria, Commander Bradshaw."

"A lot has happened in six years," replied the man. "Fichina and Sauria have been destroyed and Corneria is waging a war against a mutated breed of Sharpclaw, under the leadership of a woman who calls herself 'Kursed'. She's a telepath and leads the biomechanical sharpclaw army against Corneria. We'll leave you be for now, but Corneria has its eye on you, Mr. McCloud. Expect to hear from us again."

Fox covered his muzzle with his paws, as did the rest of the StarFox team. "…Fichina _and_ Sauria?"

"Yes, both planets were destroyed. Sharpclaw survivors of the Aparoid attack, who were outfitted with bionic implants and advanced reflexes, now fight for a telepathic vixen calling herself 'KURSED'. I won't repeat myself a third time; my advice is to stay clear and let us do our jobs. Also, it's against Cornerian law to bring a ship of your nature near the planet. So if you're going to have repairs done, do it elsewhere. Bradshaw – out." The frequency turned to brief static followed by silence.

The squadron sat in silence. After several quiet moments, Lucy turned to Fox and said, "Whoever this 'Kursed' person is, she's messing with the wrong system. Let's do what we always do and save Corneria."

Fox shook his head. "We need supplies, information and a strategy. Jumping into our Arwings might get us killed. We need to know more. Yes, I agree, the price of freedom is eternal vigilance but haste makes waste. Believe me, I want to get into the action right away and start blasting it up. We're not allowed to go near Corneria, so let's start doing sweeps of deep Lylat. For the next two days, I want to run patrols and set up a grid outside of Sector X. Let's start with the Sargasso Sea. Also, let's start scanning for traces of the Sky Claw. I'm going to go take a shower and get dressed. When I come back, I'll take over and you guys can go next."

Fox slid his paws beneath Krystal and stood up from his chair, lifting her into his arms. "I won't be too long. Start monitoring radio transmissions for information and see if you can access the subspace net, so we can start looking at what's happened over the last six years." He carried his wife to the door then released her legs to the ground. He took her paw and the two foxes walked out into the hallway.

* * *

Several eventless hours later…

"**No sign of Falco's ship,"** said Slippy in a calm voice. His eyes lowered back to the sensor panel for a moment with a frown. His wife, Amanda Toad, sat upon a chair besides him. She placed a comforting hand upon his shoulder then turned to Lucy Hare at the helm.

Krystal McCloud, the svelte blue-furred vixen and team telepath, turned to face BOB128; the silly looking droid offered another digital LED smile. She drew in a slow sigh then, with a heavy heart, said, "Call Fox up here. We've failed."

Lucy swiveled in her chair to face the group. Her eyes, glossy like a polished pair of garnet stones, shimmered in the soft lighting of the bridge, moist from disappointment and worry. "He could be lost in space." She stood from her seat and approached Slippy. "We should head down to the Lab and look at the information from his black-box data stream and compare it to _our_ flight logs."

Slippy stood from his seat and turned to Amanda. They exchanged a chaste kiss then he followed Lucy to the door. "K-Krystal, just tell Fox that we're going to research this. Falco _could_ be here, but if it were up to me, I really hope he isn't here to see this mess. Fichina and Sauria? It's _horrible_. I wish we never came back to this."

BOB's head rotated towards the group. "May I join? I have a theory I wish to test. I'll contact Fox, first, of course."

Krystal shook her head. "No, go on and help them. I'll call for him. Maybe I should hold off another few minutes, just incase you guys find something. I'd hate to bring Fox such grave news," she said, trailing off into a soft murmur. She remembered that her husband was already plagued with poor dreams concerning Falco. She didn't want to bring bad news until she was absolutely sure.

Slippy and Lucy nodded in unison. The robotic carrier pilot began to cross the bridge but stopped adjacent to Krystal. In a softer, more personal tone, he told her, "I will attempt to verify my theory, Mrs. McCloud. It is only speculation at this point but I feel it's possible we're not in _our_ Lylat. Certain celestial elements don't match to the precise numerical…"

"BOB," Krystal said with a frown. "I can't read your mind, so you'll have to speak it in a way that _mine_ can comprehend."

"The size and mass of SOLAR is different; the oceans of Zoness are comprised of different traces of pollution content in comparison to our archived file. Eladard's metallic properties are different, causing a variance of weight-to-mass ratios. The density differs from what it should be; it's lighter, with far less industrial compilation. There is a large variance between _this_ Corneria and _our_ Corneria, with similarities in the differences between our Venom and _this_ Venom."

"That _is_ speculation," Krystal replied. "All of those differences could have been caused if we've missed a massive war against Andross in the last six years. You're a computer and you're computing nothing more than supporting substantiation. Give me at least _one_ piece of intangible, hard evidence. I know your memories come from ship archives and flight logs, BOB, but please understand, in six years things have changed. Two planets have been destroyed. The shift in orbit could affect the tides of Zoness, changing the way the pollution has dissipated. Eladard could have taken massive damage or nearly been destroyed. Solar could have been host to another bio-weapon, capable of causing critical changes. I'm an explorer first, a healer second and a scientist third – I don't want to jump to conclusions."

"He's a computer," Slippy said in the machine's defense. "He's done the hard math and looked at the variables." The frog turned to BOB/Nus-128 then asked, "Do you _have_ hard evidence?"

In a monotone voice, BOB reported, "A base StarFox destroyed in the past is located on Fortuna, abandoned and undestroyed. I would like to test my theories in the lab with Lucy and Slippy."

"Go on," Krystal said with hope in her voice. The three departed from the bridge, leaving Krystal and Amanda in silence. A few minutes passed then Krystal slumped back in her chair. "Fox and I should explore; why don't you come with us, Amanda?"

"Actually, I think we should look into this anomaly on the grid." Amanda waved Krystal over to the machine and pointed to a green blip on the screen. "I tried to pull up information on it, but it shows the ship is adrift with a low power output. I scanned it and there _is_ one life sign on board, but the biometric signature is weak."

McCloud, in her late 40's, approached Slippy's wife from the left, with her paws behind her back. "Is the craft capable of being hostile?"

"It _is_ weapons capable," came Amanda's slow and drawn out reply. "But not in its current condition. All main systems are damaged or destroyed, propulsion is barely operational. Life support systems and all escape systems, ejection manifold and escape-pod cloaking abilities are fully functional, but its sensors, tactical and defensive shielding capabilities are all damaged beyond immediate repair. Hold tight, we're about to get a look at the computer-enhanced silhouette, Krys. Oh for goodness sake," Amanda glared at the readout display.

Krystal sensed Mrs. Toad's thoughts and gasped. "Change course and bring that pilot aboard!" She leaned over Amanda's shoulder, reading the top two lines on the monitor. "Why would a Wolfen be adrift in Lylat?"

"I don't know," Amanda replied. She stood up and approached the helm, taking control of the large carrier ship.

* * *

Minutes later…

**Wolf O'Donnell narrowed his gaze** at the carrier's striking red and silver hull. His lower lip dropped, seeing the StarFox emblem on the flight deck's main doors. The GreatFox carrier continued forward, swallowing his ship from the void. The damaged Wolfen skidded across the deck as gravity took its hold on the fighter. O'Donnell's craft came to rest unceremoniously on its starboard side in the center of the flight deck.

He lifted his head in the direction of two females on approach. Their forms were difficult to discern through the amber-tinted burn markings on the glass canopy. He squinted and his biomechanical eye began to zoom in. He saw Krystal McCloud on approach and gasped in shock. His canopy's vacuum seal hissed in protest, the glass began to lift from the cockpit in unison to a tone emitted from his dashboard. The computerized voice exclaimed, "Pressurization is at acceptable parameters."

Amanda stopped, adjacent to the craft lying on its side. She placed her hands on her hips and exclaimed, "Well, well, well! Of all the trash to be floating through Lylat, we pick up the filthiest fur-ball in existence."

Wolf scoffed in reply. He cast his gaze back to Krystal; his bionic eye adjusted then readjusted, drinking in her feminine form to the last detail. His eyes flitted over every inch of her body, raking over her torso and stopping on her soft cerulean visage. His upper lip curled and a sneer tugged at the corner of his muzzle. "…You. Come to fight me when I'm down, huh? I knew you were afraid of me."

Krystal furrowed her brows. "Wolf, what the heck are you talking about?"

O'Donnell glanced back down at her left paw. He reached down and unbuckled himself from his cockpit seat, spilling out onto the flight deck. He sat up on the floor then cleared his throat. "What's with the wedding ring, Kursed?"

"_Excuse_ me?" Krystal shifted her weight, hands on her hips, a smirk painted on her face.

His sneer turned into a slight grin. "You heard me, creep. What's with the ring?"

"I'm married to Fox McCloud," she retorted. "Are you suffering from amnesia, Wolf? Where's the rest of your team?"

"It sounds to me like _you're_ the one suffering from amnesia, woman." Wolf came to his feet and noted the female frog was holding a stun blaster aimed in his direction. He cut his gaze back at Krystal McCloud. "_You_ murdered my team, dammit. And you can't possibly be married to Fox; you killed him ages ago."

"…What?" Krystal balked in surprise. She turned to a stabilizing pillar at the center of the deck and pressed a button on the keyboard. "Fox, this is Krystal. Come down here and see our visitor. He's a little confused, though. He seems to think you're dead, sweetheart. I'm on the flight deck."

Fox's voice came over the small speaker built into the wall. "I'm on my way."

She turned back to Wolf with a satisfied smirk on her muzzle. "You treated me with respect when I joined your team, right before the Anglars attacked. So, I'm returning the respect by rescuing you. Don't make me regret it. I don't want you scrapping with anyone on this ship, is that clear?"

"You'd _better_ respect me as a pilot," Wolf replied. "I led the four of us to victory against the Anglars. And how did you repay me? You killed my friends _and_ my nemesis. You cheated me of the satisfaction of being victorious in combat against Fox McCloud by snapping his neck; not a hero's ending. He deserved to die in the cockpit."

"You're insane," Krystal said in a soft voice. "First of all, Fox and I worked out our differences. I left StarWolf and helped StarFox defeat the Anglars. How dare you take credit for our hard work?"

O'Donnell gawked at the blue-furred vixen. "You're so obsessed with Fox McCloud that you actually think he's alive. You actually rewrote history in your own mind. What a whack job."

Krystal stormed across the flight deck and stopped in front of Wolf. She narrowed her eyes and said, "I don't believe a word you're saying. I'm going to find out for myself. Hold still or Amanda will open fire on you." She gripped his collar with her paws then leaned forward, pressing her forehead against his. She shut her eyes and clinched her teeth.

After a moment, she stumbled backwards with a gasp. She lifted her paws to her muzzle then immediately turned away and dropped to her knees. Krystal doubled over and emptied her stomach onto the flight deck. Amanda backed away from Wolf, keeping the stunner leveled on him. She then knelt besides Krystal with concern in her voice. "What? What did you see?"

Fox McCloud entered the flight deck. Seeing Krystal on the ground, he broke into a sprint. Wolf watched the vulpine pilot's entrance and blinked in surprise. "What the hell," he murmured, followed by, "this has to be some sort of trick." Wolf stood there in a stupor, trying to put together some sort of conspiracy theory. "So you've been in on this the entire time, Fox? You faked your own death and joined her, because you were outraged that _MY_ team became the heroes of Lylat? What the hell is the meaning of this?"

"You shut up for a minute," said Fox. He knelt down besides Krystal to attend to his wife. He whispered to her and she whispered back. Amanda sidestepped away from them to give the two mates their space but she kept the stun blaster pointed at Wolf's head.

A smirk spread across O'Donnell's muzzle. "Finally growing some balls, eh pup? That's the first time I've ever heard you backtalk me, kid." Wolf received no reply. He watched as Fox comforted the vixen, now in tears from the images she'd witnessed. Fox drew her into his arms, holding her close. A moue of disgust covered the lupine's face, his upper lip curling into a snarl. "As if I haven't already seen _this_ before. I remember when you broke up with her and she was in tears the same damn way. She dropped to her knees just like this and it was _Panther_ who held her and comforted her and told her everything was going to 'be okay'. Women… who needs'em?"

Fox stood up, stalked across the flight deck then drew his fist. He put every ounce of his weight into the strike, bringing his paw into Wolf's muzzle. O'Donnell's body lurched backwards and slammed into the side-turned nosecone of his fighter. The startled lupine leapt at Fox, turning the emotional exchange into a full-blown fistfight.

The two clung to one another, to keep the other from scoring any punches. Wolf howled, "That's right, Fox, show me what you got, pansy!"

McCloud slid his left leg between O'Donnell's ankles then shoved hard. The broad-shouldered lupine toppled back and Fox took advantage of his opponent's loss of equilibrium. He threw another punch which caught Wolf across the muzzle. O'Donnell's head jerked back and his bionic eye-patch slipped from his head, clattering to the floor.

Wolf grabbed Fox by the collar, thrusting his right knee up into the vulpine pilot's stomach. He then jerked his head forward, catching McCloud in the maw. The timber wolf's sharp instincts helped him in the fight; he brought his paws up and blocked a punch then returned to the offensive, catching Fox in the gut with a quick jab.

McCloud ducked his head down, lurched forward and buried his shoulder into Wolf's gut which pushed the lupine back against the hull of his fighter again. Fox kicked his right leg up and pushed his foot against the metal hull then arched his back, throwing Wolf O'Donnell into a suplex. The two men crashed to the floor together with a resounding thud.

"Stop it, both of you!" shouted Krystal. "This won't solve _anything_!"

Fox rolled over and drew his fist back. With all of his weight, he clocked Wolf in the face again. "_That_ was for marrying Nicky!" He buried his other fist into Wolf's face, keeping the lupine pinned to the flight deck. "And that was for helping that traitor during the War!" Fox plunged his right fist back into Wolf's jaw, shouting, "And that was for helping Pigma _again_ during the Aparoid War!" Fox followed through with another left hook, striking his long-time nemesis in the nose. "And that's for running your mouth every time we scrap!"

Wolf jerked his head up, catching Fox in the forehead. The gray-furred animal rose to his feet and whirled around to face Fox. He snatched McCloud by the collar and pulled the smaller pilot to his feet. "This is for _saving_ you from the Aparoids, when I wanted to see you dead!" he shouted with a kick to Fox's stomach. "This is for humiliating me on Fortuna," he added with a punch to McCloud's jaw, followed by another sharp jab, adding, "and over Venom," and a third strike, with, "and Sargasso!" then he kicked out Fox's feet.

McCloud crumbled to the deck with Wolf saying, "And that's for your pathetic excuse for an apology to Krystal, when trying to steal her back from Panther, during the Anglar invasion." Wolf took a whiny tone and repeated from memory, "Please! I'm sorry! I'm SO sorry, Krystal!" Wolf scowled, adding, "You make me sick, pup."

Krystal interjected, slowly rising to her feet. "Stop it, you two!"

Fox found himself sitting on the deck with the Wolfen III behind him. He lifted his head just in time to see Wolf drawing his foot back for a final strike. Instinctively, Fox rolled away, towards the cockpit. He reached into the open canopy and pulled the ejection lever. Fox shifted his weight again, rolling towards the nosecone.

Wolf shifted his head just in time to see the entire cockpit unit jettison from the fighter in his direction. The canopy-sized metal box struck him square in the torso and launched him across the flight deck. Wolf hit the ground, rolling several times finally skidding to a halt. He lay on the ground, motionless.

Krystal wiped her muzzle with the backside of her sleeve then erupted, "Fox, stop! Please! Wolf may have the information we need to understand what's going on! We don't even know where we really are!"

Amanda approached O'Donnell's silent form, keeping the stun blaster trained on his body. Exercising extreme caution, she knelt down besides the lupine and put two fingers against his neck. She turned to Krystal who nodded back in understanding. Amanda then turned to Fox and said, "He's unconscious. That thing probably hit him with the force of an automobile. We have to get him medical help!"

"He's damn resilient," Fox agreed. "Get him to sickbay." He turned to Krystal and opened his mouth to apologize but she gestured him to silence with her paw.

"I know," she told her husband. "You don't know what came over you, were offended by his insult towards me, coupled with the harsh reminder of my relationship with Panther. I think you've finally proven yourself to him. You've defeated him in the cockpit, time after time. Now you've beaten him with your bare paws. Fox, this rivalry has to end."

Fox got to his feet and gave his shirt a firm tug to free the fabric of any wrinkles. Panting from the exertion, he approached the gravely injured man on the floor then offered a semi-remorseful sigh. "When I first saw him, my initial intent was to let bygones be bygones." Fox picked up the bionic eye patched and looked it over. "Something isn't right, here. Wolf had his entire eye replaced with an actual mechanical eyeball. But look…" He knelt down besides Wolf and used his thumb to pry open O'Donnell's eyelid. The socket was empty, causing Krystal and Amanda to cringe at the sight.

Fox stood up and turned to his wife. "That operation was irreversible because it required having the implant wired directly into his brain using nanotechnology. This Wolf O'Donnell never had it done. What's going on here?"

Krystal took a long, slow breath then said, "Bob has a theory that we're in an alternative version of Lylat. Falco never arrived here; his ship's unique engine signature can't be traced."

Fox reproached her and tossed the bionic eye patch to the deck. "What did you see when you probed his mind, Krys?"

"You knew I'd do that, huh?" She took a deep breath then said, "He witnessed your death, here in this Lylat. I was disgusted by who your killer was…"

"Go on," said Fox. "I want to know who has the ability to take my life. How did I die?"

"I snapped your neck with my paws," she muttered.

Fox balked. "…What?"

Krystal shook her head, tears forming in her eyes again. "The way Wolf remembers things, I stayed with StarWolf. I rejected your apology and remained Panther's loyal mate." She trailed off, watching Fox squirm at the thought of his wife making love to Panther Caruso. Krystal frowned but continued speaking. "The people of Lylat saw my actions against you as a betrayal. They hailed StarWolf as heroes but booed me. My doppelganger apparently felt crushed and rejected. Cerinia is gone, I have no one else. Unable to work out my relationship with you and forced out of Lylat and away from Panther, I never had a mate. I roamed different systems in search of a mate so that I could continue my bloodline only to catch up with hunters who sought to end the Cerinia line. I survived for a while as a bounty hunter and honed my skills why evading and avoiding the small group of aliens hunting me. They caught up to me on Planet Kew."

Fox placed a paw on her shoulder. "Please, go on. I have to know what you've learned so I can better understand what's going on."

She offered a weak nod. "Apparently you and I cross paths but you don't even recognize me, face to face. I become angry and bitter. I help you to take down the hunters on Kew, finish your mission of helping the planet to meet the obligation of your salary-paid mission, then I follow you back to Lylat. I kill you and Wolf's team. I… my _doppelganger_… goes to Fichina and uses the weather climate control computer to force a large amount of concentrated lava to shift in the core. In time, the center of the planet cracks and before long, the planet bursts.

"Then, I go to Sauria," she said, lowering her eyes with deeper frown. She licked her lips as if ashamed of actions she knew she never personally committed. "I… I enlist the Sharpclaw lizards to help me fight and conquer Lylat. I remove the spell stones from the Force Point Temple and flee the planet. In time, the planet comes apart then destroys itself. I have ships built on Venom; each of four battleships have the spell stones powering their energy cores, so that they have nearly unlimited power for their shields. We begin crushing Lylat; all that's left is Corneria. I become known as a butcher for murdering every warm-blooded male who is brave enough to cross my path. I'm… I'm capable of such incredible evil, Fox. I'm capable of inhumane murder and wanton destruction. What kind of person am I to be able to achieve such heinous acts?"

Fox remained silent from shock. "So if we never worked out our relationship, you would have come back and murdered me." He wore a dumbfounded expression on his face. "That's quite a change from the girl the Krazoa Spirits labeled _pure of heart_, during your trial."

"Something so pure can be tainted… sullied, Fox. Corruption of good can lead to incredible evil. I'm … I just… I don't know what to say."

McCloud shook his head to clear his thoughts; his shoulders ached and his body hurt all over from the brawl with O'Donnell. "Amanda, I need you to help me carry Wolf to sickbay. We need to revive him and learn as much as possible about this Lylat. If Falco wound up somewhere else, then we should be able to find a way home… _our_ home."

Krystal nodded and the trio gathered around Wolf's body…

* * *

A/N: _How about I stop here for the moment? Okay, so now everyone knows that Fox and Krystal are still alive. They accidentally wound up in KURSED's universe. As you may recall, Star / Marcus killed Kursed in combat. Now Krystal is reeling with the knowledge that she has the capacity for incredible evil. How does someone who is so pure of heart and so good… cope with the knowledge that they could become twice as deadly and evil as Andross? How does she live with the guilt of knowing that her doppelganger has murdered millions of people? Krystal went from pure and gentle and lovely, to a woman who is tested on Sauria, discovers a fiery willpower and passion to fight for what she believes in… then after rejection and intense hurt, she becomes stubborn and spiteful… then she learns that her life became a forked path. On one side, she was a forgiving person who opened up her heart again, over time. She struggled to trust and, eventually, found it in herself to give her heart openly one more time. On the other path of her life, she became withdrawn, spiteful and consumed with vengeance. She adapted her powers to attack the minds of her enemies. She killed in cold blood, hot blood and sometimes, in real blood_

_The question of the day is, will StarFox figure out how to get to _**their**_ version of Lylat? Will they arrive in time to help Marcus and his team? What will happen when Fox comes face to face with Fara again? Will his feelings for his wife change, now that he knows that a spiteful Krystal __**could**__ potentially have the ability to kill him? Will those feelings be compounded by crossing paths with his first love, Fara Phoenix? Will Krystal become jealous of Fara_

_We know what an evil, jealous and bitter version of Krystal is capable of… But how will she react to sensing her husband's thoughts when Fara re-enters his life? Am I just leading way too much into this? After all, we don't know how Fara will feel about seeing her first serious mate married and in his mid-to-late fifties. Who knows with women, you know_

_How many women drool over Harrison Ford and Pierce Brosnin and Sean Connery? All three of those guys are well over fifty! But where has Fara's heart gone, now that she's considering a relationship with Marcus? After all, she'd been in suspended animation for a while and has the body of a woman __between the age of twenty-eight and thirty-two. That's only a few years older than Marcus… I think this could turn rather dramatic, don't you_

_-Kit_


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: **I AM SORRY ABOUT THE DELAY. **

_There is a lot of stuff I wanted to do in this chapter… I also don't want to drag the story out forever. Marcus' team has a small window of time and is stretched pretty thin now that they also have to attend to this Bio Weapon being created on Eladard. If you remember, they found it when taking Jane Flowers to a Cryo-stasis chamber. _

_The long story short, I've tossed ideas around __**for several months**__ and finally decided to just bring Fox and Krystal home as quickly as possible. I also realized something else… I've been working on this story for so darn long, that I don't mention Amanda being lost with the team, alongside Slippy, earlier in this story (when I started on it, she didn't exist as a character, just yet)… I mention Ted Toad in the middle… but I should go back and toss Amanda's name into chapter 1. _

_**Regarding Fara Phoenix**__, I had this really awesome concept for her… I threw a few little hints around in Reflections Of Fox, but I was only developing this new idea and hadn't yet molded it to completion yet… Concerning this new concept, I wrote out her "__**huge secret**__" in Chapter 24 … I was pretty blunt about it, too. I'm not sure how hardcore Fara Fans will react. I've asked a few. Some LOVED it, others were like, "Go ahead and do it, but I'm not yet sure HOW I feel about it. I don't DIS-like it, because it's unique and… it kinda works. Pretty well, actually." And yet, they acted like it was a little awkward for them. _

_Yeah, we all had our own unique perception of what Fara is like deep down inside… But I read and re-read the comics before I decided to move forward with this concept… I'll be honest, it should really add a new dynamic level to FARA PHOENIX… and yet, I know it's not what Ben Itoh had in mind for her, upon the character's conception in his head.  
__Just the same, I think it kinda works; you'll find out in the NEXT chapter, but that's not a very long wait, since it's nearly finished. _

_I don't know what I'm going to do with Fara in this story yet… Any ideas? Requests? Maybe have her go back into stasis? Disappear? Date Marcus (as suggested by my editor, also known as 'Destructor' from __Phoenix from the Ashes__)? ...That'd be a little weird, though, right? Who knows? We'll see how it develops if no one can give me any good ideas. Please enjoy chapter 23! _

* * *

Chapter -23-  
"_Minor Setback"_

-------------------------

_Yesterday…_

**Falco Lombardi cackled** in response to McCloud's chiding. He reached behind his seat and pulled out a high power assault rifle. He used his elbow to strike the emergency ejector switch. The Arwing dual-safety ejection device was designed two ways. A pilot could pull the lever to eject their entire canopy from the ship, or they could push it inward with excessive force to launch the pilot free of the entire ship.

The cockpit rushed back on its rails. The chair bucked upwards, providing over six hundred pounds of thrust per square inch. Lombardi sailed high above the flight deck but didn't wear any sort of safety chute. He spread both of his wings and his shirt billowed up with air in the low-gravity environment. The falcon began to glide back downwards, doing his best to lay down a volley of covering fire.

The reptiles on the deck glanced up at the resourceful avian then scattered to avoid his gunfire. One of them took a direct blast to the chest and lurched back from the energy transference. He bowled over another soldier before crashing against the deck. His head lifted then dropped in silence.

Marcus mashed down on the canopy release switch then wiggled out before it was all the way open. He lobbed a fragmentation grenade out onto the deck then pushed his palms up against his ears. The concussive blast sent two more lizards airborne. It knocked a third back onto his tail. The expressionless soldier sat up, dazed and confused by the blast. A gunshot from Falco's rifle struck him square atop of his head. His body slumped back, motionless.

Falco dropped to the deck, assuming a crouched posture. He tucked the weapon up against his shoulder and aimed down the barrel. The solid object bucked in his grasp and chewed through two more soldiers further back on the deck. He called back to McCloud, "Let's move forward while we have them surprised!"

"I'm right behind you," Marcus shouted. The fox ran down the hull of his Arwing, guns blazing. The two forearm-length submachine guns offered very low recoil but spit out a high amount of ammunition at a return cost of very poor accuracy. Glowing tracer rounds sprayed the double doors at the far end of the deck but hit nothing. He leapt from the nosecone of his fighter then released the triggers of his weapons and raised the left one at forty-five degrees.

Falco stood up then moved into a defensive position, keeping his sights on the double doors while taking cover behind a trashed enemy fighter. He hollered back to Fox's son, asking, "Where'd you get the crazy idea that it's easy to shoot two guns at once?"

The vulpine pilot flanked opposite of Lombardi, moving behind another trashed fighter before moving up to the next pile of rubble. "Fara made it look easy back on Corneria before you showed up!" He bolted for the double doors then slammed his body up against the adjacent wall, waiting for Falco.

Falco moved off to the side with a casual gait; he kept his gun aimed at the double doors but nothing came through. "Fara? Dual-wielding small arms?" he asked with some measure of surprise. He canted his head and offered a flat glare. Falco's voice became terse "Are you _sure_?"

"As graceful as a videogame," replied McCloud. He offered a nod to Falco then nudged the manual release button on the wall-mounted control panel. The door lock clicked open but they didn't slide apart on their rails. McCloud tugged on the powerless door and they pulled apart in unison albeit slowly.

Falco peered into the next hall at a forty-five degree angle. Marcus did the same from the opposite side. Lombardi offered a silent nod then leaned around the corner with a ready weapon. Nothing. "It's clear, kiddo." He stepped through the doors and moved forward with caution. Half way down the hall, he added, "Attach a proximity mine on the doors at the end of the hall."

Marcus sprinted down the hall, passed Falco then stopped in front of the doors at the far end. He dropped the weapon in his left paw so that it dangled from his shoulder by its strap. He retrieved a flat disc and placed it in his teeth then he peeled a paper-thin sheet from the back and attached it to the left side of the double doors. It stuck to the flat surface with ease. McCloud tossed the backing paper to the floor and ran back towards Falco, coming to meet him in an intersection. "They'll open those doors just a little, peer in and then open them the rest of the way. As soon as the guy on point passes through, it will count down a five second delay. They'll start pouring through those doors; it'll go off and take out the whole lot of'em."

"Fair enough," Lombardi replied with a grin. "Bridge or Engine room?"

"Which is closer?" asked Marcus. His right ear flickered spastically as if in reply to the strobe effect from the ceiling lights. The remainder of the "T" shaped hall glowed in a soft amber luminosity from the emergency illumination.

Falco turned towards the three-way intersection and began to walk down the adjoining hall. "Engineering is, but I'm not sure which is going to be _easier_ at this point." The doors at the end of the hallway slid open and more enemies than either could care to count began pouring through. Without further warning, an explosion ripped through the lot of them, sending the reptiles in every direction. "C'mon kid, it's raining lizard giblets! Let's make a break for it!"

The two pilots ran down the intersecting hall and stopped at the doors. They pushed the powerless panels apart. The next room held an ovular chamber directly above the square one. The rounded catwalk had a line of guards waiting with their weapons at the ready. On the first floor, each wall held a doorway. Red and amber lights covered the walls and ceilings.

Falco peered in, counting the guards then ducked back into the hallway cursing under his breath. "Well, they saw me. They didn't open fire, but they know we're here and they're aiming for us. Got anymore things that go 'boom' in your satchel?"

"Let's see what Crimson packed," Marcus replied. He kept his back to the wall, just out of view from the open double doors and routed through his gear. "Oh, are you kidding?" He cast a slight grin at the Avian. "Let me ask you something, Mister Lombardi."

"Jeeze, kid, just Falco will do."

"All right, well then… If I can get us through this room without so much as a scratch, will you talk to Violet for me?"

Falco ran his feathery fingers over his head. "I already have. You can see the boy and I told her to change his last name to McCloud because Katt and I aren't done having kids yet, now that I'm back… but she's being irrational and weird about you guys getting back together… I think it was pretty weird for her, going through all that crap on Fichina."

"I'm not talking about getting her to love me again," Marcus said with a sudden sour tone in his voice. "I just want to see my kid. Her blowing me off and telling me she doesn't love me anymore is all the closure I needed, Sir. I just want to see my son."

"Can we talk about this later?" Falco asked with a softening sort of voice. "If we both get gunned down, neither of us are doing anything."

Marcus pulled out a flash grenade and a smoke bomb then tossed each one to Lombardi and said, "I thought you'd deck me when you came back… for getting her pregnant."

"These'll work," said Falco, adding, "Listen, I heard your side of it, then I heard hers. You know what she told me?" Warning shots rang out. Two rounds ricocheted off the floor, redirected down the hallway. Falco didn't even flinch. "She told me she saw that her mother was in such an incredible slump, that she decided to get herself pregnant. When Katt had a grandchild in her arms, she felt she had a reason to live all over again. It put new wind in Katt's sails. When I went home the other day, I walked right into her arms and we made up for six years of being apart. Afterwards, Katt confided to me that her grandson is what kept her going all these years. So, no, I ain't mad. And I'm not upset that you and Violet aren't together. You're my godson and Violet made up her mind to do all those things on her own. Now, I've said enough on that, a'ite? Let's stop yammering and start shooting."

McCloud readied his weapons. "Throw in the smoke grenade, the flashbang and then I'll run in and shoot."

"Get set," Falco warned. He tossed in the smoke grenade, then, almost immediately afterwards, he tossed the flash grenade in and covered his ears. The avian averted his eyes until after the crack of magnesium was heard. Almost immediately afterwards, he looked up in time to see Marcus running through the door with guns blazing. "Wait up, kid! Leave some of them for me, dammit!"

The azure-feathered falcon sprinted into the room with his assault rifle. Its butt-stock bucked wildly against his shoulder. The smoke began to billow up, filling the room. Dazed lizards wavered listlessly – temporarily deaf and blind. Falco aimed high, taking out the men on the catwalk while McCloud went for the poor slobs on the ground floor.

"The engine room is this way and the bridge is this way," said McCloud. He ran towards the door on the left, marked 'Command Center' in the Venom language. He shoved the doors open but froze in his tracks. He immediately shoved the doors shut then scrambled to the control panel on the side. He used the bottom of his left weapon to shatter the plastic controls then reached into the wall and yanked on the manual locking mechanism.

Seconds later, a score of loud noises filled the room. Falco stepped from the thick smoke screen and approached the door. "What's going on?"

"We're not going to the bridge," said Marcus with a thin, grim smile. "We're just not." Falco blinked in confusion to which McCloud responded with, "Trust me, Sir. It's impossible."

"Just call me _Falco_, jeeze. Don't you listen? What's so impossible, anyhow?"

The door began to buckle, denting inward towards them. "How about enough lizards to fill a stadium?" Marcus offered a goofy expression then shrugged. He added, "That lock won't hold a few thousand gunshots. Let's make tracks… Falco."

"A few _thousand_?"

Marcus nodded rather emphatically. "A few thousand if you're only calculating _one shot per soldier_." He bolted off towards one of the other two remaining doors and Lombardi followed, not willing to argue about it. Marcus called back over his shoulder with, "Engineering is this way! It's our best chance to try and force this thing into some sort of collision course! Let's hurry, old man! I'm not trying to stick around on this barge all day!"

Marcus' headset, the one he'd gotten from his father, began to chirp loudly. "Dammit," he groused, reaching for the switch on the side. "McCloud, here." He paused then his eyes widened. "What? A bio weapon, _where_?" He glanced over his shoulder at Falco with his jaw wide. "Falco, Fara's reporting from her patrol; they've somehow stumbled across information concerning a Venom bio weapon under construction on Eladard!"

Lombardi groaned. He ran past Marcus, headed for the engineering section and waved his feathery hand for the younger vulpine to follow. "Well let's hurry the hell up so we can figure out what the crap to do about it!"

Outside, Vivian Hare leaned back in her cockpit with a casual smirk on her face. She released the flight yolk, pushed her white gloves together to crack her knuckle then smirked. She placed her left paw on the accelerator lever and her right on the control yolk. Immediately, she jerked the thrust down to bring her to a stop, while hitting the retro rockets to provide simulated reverse thrust. She pulled back on the controls and leveled off on the rudder pedals.

Her fighter, chased by two enemies, began to roll back yet still continued forward from momentum. She rotated in a half circle, until the inverted image of her opponents came into view. She lined up the targeting reticule and mashed her thumbs down on the trigger. Her fighter bucked; the multi-lock sent two glowing globes of blue plasmatic energy out into the void. They collided with the Venom fighters, destroying each.

She grinned. The rabbit placed her left paw over the front of her flight suit, just below her bosom. Nibbles, the little ball of fluff she found on Fichina, wiggled between her palm and her solar plexus. Her grin broadened. "That was pretty awesome, huh?" she asked of the tiny pet.

Theodore's voice came over the radio. "Viv, I'm getting a static radio signal. It's distorted but it sounds like they're changing their plan. They're heading for engineering because the bridge is inaccessible for some reason."

Nibbles climbed up from the chest pocket that met the bottom point of her v-cut collar. She used her index finger to rub his little fuzzy head. "You can't see him, Nibbles. He's on the radio."

As if able to comprehend, the little animal burrowed back down into her pocket. Her grin melted into a smirk that tugged at her right cheek. "Yeah, you like it down there, don't you? Ya' lil' perve." She reached back to her thrust lever and eased forward into throttle. The Jack Rabbit fighter's engines hummed and the speckled onyx canvas moved about her once more.

She came about perpendicular to Toad. She could see his ship pass three enemies. Tiny orange containers dropped from the back of his ship only to detonate and destroy the Venom squadron. She blinked then opened a channel to him. "Did you just drop mines in their path?"

"Yeah, you know you like it," he replied. Seconds later, he added, "Stand by; I'm getting something from the team."

Vivian lowered her eyes to the scanner display on her dashboard. Only one red 'blip' remained – The Behemoth. Half of the battleship glistened with illumination while the rear section remained dim. It began to shift on its Y-axis. Small boosters up at the front, beneath the bridge, flickered to life. The massive dreadnaught listed hard. Lined up with the Venom Area6 defense satellite, it began to pick up speed, heading for the distant structure in reverse.

Theodore's voice returned to the main channel. "Vivian, they're pinned down. Marcus just gave me coordinates; I'm going to pipe them to your system. You'll see red holographic squares on your Heads Up Display. I want you to strike there with absolute precision. I'm going to use my mines to blow open the emergency flight deck doors and use a reverse polarity magnetic hull to guide their ships out while they're in the middle of boot procedures."

"Okay, okay, stop talking details and start detailing action." She closed the channel and tapped several keys on her armrest that accepted an information download from his ship's computer.

Vivian pulled up the tactical grid on her HUD and zeroed in on the coordinates for attack…

Inside The Behemoth, Falco and Marcus huddled back to back behind an overturned metal desk. It grew hot from absorbing blaster fire at a rapid rate. "This is fun," Marcus mused aloud.

"Are you kidding?" Falco retorted with a cocky chuckle. "These are the best moments of your youth, kiddo! Enjoy it, for cryin' out loud. Just get ready to run your tail off."

"I hope you're right about this," said the vulpine pilot with a sharp frown.

Falco face-faulted then glanced at the young Wing Commander. "Would you rather dodge bullets or avoid fire? Explosions are dangerous but they won't aim for the back of your head when you're trying to make tracks."

Marcus flinched at a nearby ricochet. "What makes you think this will work better?"

"Experience, kid."

"Oh yeah?" Marcus offered a nervous chuckle. "In what way, old timer?"

Falco glance over his shoulder with a sly grin. "I've got two words for you, junior hero." He reached for his silver jacket pocket and withdrew a pair of sunglasses. "Gang wars." He flipped the shades open and slid them up his beak. "It's going to be bright and hot in here. You'll want something to cover your eyes but I only have one pair of sunshades. I suggest covering your face with a paw. Get ready."

Marcus reached into his hip bag and withdrew a small rectangular case. He pried it open with a thumb claw, taking a moment to appreciate the sunglasses that belonged to his father and grandfather. For the first time ever, he drew the dark-tinted shades from their case and unfolded them. "I keep these on me for good luck but I've never worn them." He guided the shiny black spectacles up to the bridge of his muzzle, closed the case and replaced it in his bag.

Falco glanced back over his shoulder again to look over Marcus. Lombardi offered a grin of approval. "Hell yeah, kid. I've not seen those things in over twenty-five years. Don't break'em." Falco could see his own reflection in the darkly mirrored lenses.

A massive explosion ripped through the engine room on the far end. The blast knocked more than half of the reptiles to the deck. A hull rupture sucked several lizards straight into space but a containment field appeared only seconds later.

A loud voice came over the public announcement system, speaking monotone Venom. Falco turned to Marcus and said, "What's that thing saying? Is it anything about stopping us?"

McCloud took a moment to listen to the minds of the lizards in the room. "No, it says hull integrity has been compromised; the hull has been breached – report to all available lifeboats on deck C, E and H."

The azure avian paused. "Okay, deck three, five and eight have the escape pods… damn, we're still closer to our fighters. Let's make a run back to the hanger. Ready? Set? Go!" He kicked the metal table forward and leapt forward in the semi-weakened gravity. Marcus broke into a sprint behind him.

Falco panned his weapon from left to right, spraying the path in front of him. The reptiles in front of him either took cover or dropped to the deck in silence. Falco kept the trigger depressed, leading down a fiery hallway. Another massive explosion rocked the aft section. Up ahead, the doors at the end of the hall burst from their metal tracks. The avian vaulted over them and continued through the doorway.

Behind him, Marcus hurdled the two fallen metallic doors and used his two weapons to spray the immediate area with rounds. With their enemies pinned down between the wild volley of gunfire and the explosions, both pilots met little resistance.

"Which way again?" shouted Falco over the roar of the fire.

Marcus blew by the older pilot. "Are you kidding? Are you seriously that close to being senile?" He darted to the left and Lombardi followed. McCloud opened fire again only to stumble from the ship shuttering once more. "How the hell is she able to blast right through a polarized hull plate?"

Falco shouted in reply, "You can't polarize it if there's no freaking power, Einstein!"

"But there's power for the containment fields!" called McCloud as the two raced down the next hallway. The fox kept his left paw up over his face to ward off the intense heat all around them. The once dim hallways now glowed in the intense blaze.

"Stop arguing and run!"

Over Marcus' communicator helmet, the one belonging to his father, he heard Theodore's voice in his ear. "Actually, each emitter has its own battery backup pack. They'll last about ten minutes or until main power is restored. It's designed to give the crew enough time to seal the unit's blast doors. Once engineering is sealed off, it won't matter anymore. You guys really need to hurry up."

"We're TRYING!" shouted Marcus in reply. The ship lurched again, causing him to stagger. Falco's palm found McCloud's shoulder, stabilizing the fox in mid run. The two burst through the ajar doors and into the hanger. They sprinted across the flight deck, leaving the fire behind. Each pilot raced to his ship and pulled their canopy shut. "We're in, let's roll!" cried the younger pilot over his communicator. He engaged the safety on his weapons then tossed them over his shoulder, behind the seat.

He pulled the seatbelt harness over his body and pushed the buckle into the clasp. Without further warning, the two massive emergency doors blew off their tracks. Marcus' Arwing began to skid across the deck, leaving gouges in the metal deck plates from his landing tracks.

He initialized his system then waved his paw in a rolling motion, gesturing for the computer to hurry. The back end of his fighter lifted then slammed down on the deck again. The lighter nosecone eased up into the air followed by the entire fighter flipping onto its side. Instead of crashing down on the deck, it lifted up. He glanced up through the canopy and watched as his surroundings changed. The Arwing blew out into space with Falco's right stabilizer brushing against the belly of McCloud's fighter.

Inside his cockpit, the vulpine cringed at the sound of metal scraping against metal like fingernails on a chalkboard. The sight of Theodore's ship came into view as it passed over top of them both. Using an electromagnetic tractor beam, both Arwings brushed together, drawn away from the battleship's hanger doors.

Falco's voice came over the communicator frequency. "Transfer power from your main guns to your tractor beam, Ted."

"I've got plenty of…"

"Do it!" shouted Falco. He added, "You've got plenty of power, but unless you transfer it, your emitter will overheat and you'll lose beam integrity. Do it!"

"Okay, okay!" replied the frog over the radio patch. "Don't get your feathers in a bunch! I'm doing it now! What's the big deal, anyhow?"

"I nearly killed two teammates the same way," Falco muttered, remembering when he tried to pull a LandMaster tank out of the water at the bottom of the broken dam. (A/N: _near the end of Reflections of the Future._) He cleared his throat and said, "My dumb mistake almost cost Marcus – he might not have been born. Just get us out of here. My system should be booted in another minute."

Marcus watched the massive hull of The Behemoth. It continued off into the distance. He reached a paw up and adjusted his sunglasses on his muzzle. A little smile tugged at the corner of his lips, watching the dreadnaught head straight for the distant defense satellite. Seconds later, a magnificent fireball illuminated the charcoal canvas.

* * *

_Nearly Two Decades Ago…_

**"Your mom said I've got to take the game away at twenty-two hundred hours." **Slippy crossed the young boy's bedroom and sat down on the mattress. "Save it and turn it off, Star." He folded his arms doing his best to look firm. The young boy, two days from his seventh birthday, nodded with a frown. He scrambled diligently, mashing buttons with his thumbs in an attempt to hurry to the next save point.

Slippy waited another moment for the young kit to turn off the handheld video game then took it from him and set it on a shelf. He turned back to the boy and said, "I'm not sure when they'll be back from their mission. He said he might be a little late and to get you in bed by ten. As you can see," he paused, nodding to the clock on the wall. It read 22:12. "I was a little lenient, giving you extra time. I won't tell your mom if _you_ don't."

"Slippy?"

"Yeah, Star?" The frog turned back to the bed, took the covers and lifted them up, unknotting them.

"Can you show me how to do that thing with the engine again?" His big mismatched blue and green eyes dazzled with adorable charm. His whiskers twitched and his grayish light-blue fur, which often took on an orange tint in the summer, seemed to shine somehow.

Slippy tilted his head. "You mean the time I rebuilt an Arwing engine after stripping it down to nothing but p-p-parts?" He grinned in reply to the boy's emphatic nodding then added, "We'll see. One of them is due for it soon. Maybe in a few weeks. Okay?"

"Awesome. Goodnight." He laid back on the pillow and waited to be covered with the comforter. Slippy pulled it up over him then turned out the light. Amanda stood in the doorway, charmed by the way her fiance did his best to play 'dad'. She waved to Star from the far side of the room then backed away as Slippy reached the doorway. He waited until the frog pulled the door shut and then counted to thirty.

The young kit sat up, pulled a small flashlight from his pillow sham then switched it on. He slid out of bed and crept over to the bookshelf. Carefully, with the light in his muzzle, he put his foot on the second shelf from the floor then hoisted himself upwards. He put his other foot on the third shelf, slowly climbing towards the video game system that sat on the sixth shelf from the floor. Once he had his left foot firmly planted on the fifth shelf, which bowed ever so slightly beneath his weight, he reached up and snatched the system from its resting spot.

Star tossed it over his shoulder; his ears flickered in reply to the slight sound of the weighty handheld system landing on his pillow. He bent his knees slightly and hopped away from the bookcase. Like his animal ancestors, he landed on all fours, crouched. The young boy grinned and scampered back to bed. He took the edge of the blanket in his paws and lifted it, then jerked his arms down, making the blanket look as though it had been freshly laid out. He snuggled beneath it and took his game off of the pillow, turning it on.

He turned the volume all the way down and pulled out the stylus, using it to navigate through the option menu. He loaded his game file and began mashing buttons, until fully immersed in the level all over again. Minutes passed and became thirty. The door to his room hissed softly on the track and his ears perked. He sensed his bloodline in proximity.

The youth lifted his head and his eyes widened, looking up at his father in the dark. Caught red-handed, the young boy frowned. He tilted the game system forward in his paws, using the light of the display to illuminate the muzzle of his father who looked down at him in complete amusement. Fox McCloud had his paws on his hips, trying not to grin. "It's a little late, don't-cha think? It's nearly eleven at night, Star."

"I…" Nothing good came to mind. "…Wasn't sleepy."

"Let's pretend like I took this away and put it on the top shelf," said McCloud. "What're you playing?"

Star paused the game and replied, "It's a space combat game; you're a privateer and I'm smuggling contraband between planets for a quick buck because the confederacy just increased their police force, so now I'm making triple the money doing this run. If I can get it all the way there, I'll have enough to purchase a weapon's upgrade on my cruiser. Then I'll be ready to try and collect on a bounty worth ten million credits."

Fox opened his muzzle to reply but nothing came out. His ears laid back and his whiskers stood straight out. He drew a deep breath, sighed and nodded. "I guess someone forgot to tell you that you're only six."

"I guess you missed the part where I said, '_Ten million credits_,' Dad. I don't even think _you_ can count that high without a calculator. I know _I_ sure can't." He nodded emphatically then asked, "Can I get a drink before bed?" It was the oldest trick on the planet.

"Gee, let me think… let a six year old gulp down some juice or water _right before_ going to sleep. No, I don't see any logic in that; do you?"

"I'm almost seven," Star reminded. "Two more days!"

Fox tossed his paws up in the air as if in defeat. "Well in that case," he exclaimed softly in reply to the child's logic. "…The answer is still not the one you want to hear, Star. But there is plenty to drink in the galley when you wake up."

The youth's shoulders slumped. "I suppose this is the part where you take the game and put it up on the top shelf," said the boy dejectedly.

A hint of a smirk tugged at the corner of McCloud's muzzle. He looked the boy over, cleared his throat, then said, "I guess _you_ missed the part where _I_ said, '_Let's pretend like I took this away and put it on the top shelf.'_ But if your mother asks, you don't have to go ratting me out." The pilot leaned down and kissed his son on the forehead. "I spoil you. Did you know that? I completely spoil you. I have no problem disciplining another pilot but I can't even take my kid's video game system away."

"Remember last night, when mom put it up on the top shelf and tucked me in?" Star grinned.

Fox nodded, "Yeah. I remember getting it down and giving it to you ten minutes later. Like I said… you're spoiled."

"I never ratted you out, dad. She never sensed it, either. Guess she was too busy or something."

Fox turned away and grinned at the wall. He remembered clearly what had happened after giving his son the video game system. He went to his room and had his way with his wife; he pushed the image from his head aware of his son's telepathic abilities. The vulpine pilot ran his fingers up through his headfur, cleared his throat then said, "I just wanted you to be preoccupied, Star. That way you'd eventually fall asleep faster." Of course that wasn't the real reason… keeping the tyke busy meant that the telepathic little one wouldn't be able to focus enough to sense anything from his mother in the next room over. Fox then told him, "I'll come check on you in half an hour. Try to turn that thing off before falling asleep this time." He leaned in and kissed the boy on the forehead then added, "And do yourself a favor – _don't_ take the contraband run. It's probably getting shipped by the Con-Fed. They might have set up a sting to go after black market traders. Take the shipment but don't do the run. The buyer would rather have it late then never receive it at all. If you want quick cash for a weapon's upgrade, I suggest doing a boring escort run then deliver the smuggled goods under the guise of your other job when the opportunity presents itself."

"What's… a 'sting'?" He paused, sensing the answer from his father, then quickly said, "I've already received the shipment; I just have to drop it off."

"I'm giving you fatherly advice, young man. Escort run; deliver the goods late on purpose. You might take a small hit in payout but if you rush into it, you're only setting yourself up for a raid."

"Okaaaay," said Star with a soft sigh. "Escort jobs are _so_ boring, but I'll try it your way and see what happenes, pop."

"That's a boy," said Fox in reply. He grinned then said, "I'm going to slip back out of the room now. Don't go and get yourself caught playing, all right?"

"Yes, Sir."

* * *

_The present_…

**Fox McCloud rubbed his forehead** with his left paw. He held a photograph in his right that had a picture of his little boy. "We're coming," he whispered.

The feminine voice of his wife floated over his ears from behind. "God forbid we never make it out of this hell." She rested her head upon his shoulder, pressing her torso against his back. She wrapped her arms around his waist. "I always liked that picture of you two; you could really see the father-son similarities at that angle."

"You're the one who took the photograph," Fox reminded. He leaned back against her with a weak grin. His left paw dropped to cover hers comfortingly. His palm slid overtop of her knuckles. "It seems like this Lylat's problems have come to a conclusion; according to the subspace net, they claim that Kursed is dead or gone… they got her with a Gravity Bomb recently; she could have received the same fate as _us_. We should figure out how to get home; I say we let them heal and go on about our business." His eyes returned to the photograph… Fox McCloud holding his son on his hip, kissing the left side of the boy's muzzle on his seventh birthday. The child held a videogame system in his little paws – the one from Fox's memory.

She paused to scan his thoughts then smiled softly. "You know that was pretty clever," said Krystal, speaking almost directly into his ear. "Here I was, afraid that he might wake up and sense things he didn't understand; I did my best to clear my mind when we mated, just to make sure… and here you were giving him a toy game so he'd be completely distracted. You're a shrewd man, Fox McCloud."

"And you're still the only woman who can get me riled up," he said, turning about in her arms. Their lips met. The kiss concluded after a moment and Fox said to her, "You've forgiven me so I know you're not only _capable_ of forgiveness but you've exercised it. But what if you came face to face with the person who admited that they destroyed Cerinia? Do you think you'd let yourself become consumed by hatred?"

"Fox, you're looking far too deeply into this." She placed her palms upon either side of his face. "After two days of sitting in this hell hole, you're letting things get to you. We've come face to face with Cerinia's murderer. Remember? We climbed out of that tube while Andrew tried to get his Uncle into the hallway… there was fire and biological weapons clawing at the door. We took the floor vent into the crawlspace and decided to leave instead of go after them. I wasn't consumed with rage; maybe more things happened to my doppelganger than Wolf knew about. The thing is, that never happened and I took you back because I love you."

"I love you too," said Fox. He placed the photo back on his dresser. "Maybe we should let Wolf out of the brig and see if he'll be willing to play nice. I want to learn about what's going on from him. Meanwhile I want Slippy and Lucy to work on figuring out how Falco wound up somewhere other than here. But for right now, tell them to take a break before they burn themselves out."

"I'll tell them. You go down to the brig while I head to the lab. I suggest that you talk to Wolf first then, if he seems to be acting reasonable, it will be up to you to deem him fit and stable; don't let him out of the brig if he misbehaves."

"I can handle him," said Fox. "He was all charged up on adrenaline from whatever shot him up in his cockpit. Now he's calm; I'm calm. Everything is fine."

"He was charged up on adrenaline because he came face to face with _me_, Fox. He thought I was Kursed and he thought I came to 'finish him off.' He was ready to fight for his life. I saw my doppelganger; she murdered men – very twisted."

"…Yeah. A little," Fox admitted with a frown. "I'm a little squicked out by the prospect of you only killing men."

She immediately cupped his muzzle in her palms. Their gaze locked. "Fox, it wasn't me. The only people who I have killed were colded blooded scaley pilots hell-bent on harming others. I would never _ever_ harm you, even if you betrayed me again. I love you, remember?"

Fox offered her a weak smile. "I'm sorry; you're the mother of my child and I don't mean to treat you with such disrespect. You're absolutely right and I love you, too."

She offered a soft smile. "There, now… I still sense worry in the back of your mind but I think you see things the way I do… Part of me wants to stay and help Corneria heal by appologizing on behalf of this…_Kursed_ but it's not my place. You're right in saying that we should leave and let them heal."

"Then that settles it. I'll talk to Wolf, explain what's going on and we'll drop him off somewhere. Then we'll head out of here. The only thing is, we might need to enlist the help of Slippy's father in this Lylat. I'll have Slippy try and contact him. I don't know if the rest of StarFox exists in this universe."

"Actually, it's Slippy's Son, Theodore." Krystal licked her lips apprehensivly. "Wolf thinks StarFox is defunct; all their members have been killed or are otherwise gone. It is common knowledge to Wolf and… I _saw_ that, too, when I probed his mind – saw her going after other teammates."

"…Oh." Fox frowned in reply. "…Kursed?" He flinched in reply to the almost-casual way she nodded to his question. Sensing the way it hit him, she placed her paws back upon his face. Fox drew in a deep breath and told her, "I know… I know it wasn't you. I'm just… I can't believe she murdered the entire team; I can't help but tell you that I'm unnerved by the fact she existed, let alone by the possibility that she's still alive and could find a way back."

She released his face and said, "By talking to Mister Theodore Beltino Toad, they could prepare for the worst but if Falco is out there in _our_ universe and hurt, we need to get home _quickly_ so we can help him… not to mention every other reason we have for returning home. If Andross personally attacked _us_, six years ago, he's still alive. Our only option is to return home and stop him. It's quite possible that he's taken Lylat. We may have to hide when we return home so that we can figure things out and …let's not focus on that right now. We have to actually _get_ home first."

Fox slid off the mattress and pulled his vest off a nearby hook. He zipped up the front and glanced over his shoulder at her. "I doubt Wolf will even believe me at this point but I just want to get home right now, so I'm going to try and talk to him."

Krystal reached for the photograph that Fox put on the dresser; her eyes lowered to the image of her husband and young son. "Fair enough. If you're unsure, call me. I'll come down and read him before you deactivate the laser bars." She paused, lifted her gaze to her mate and, in a soft voice, said, "I hope Star is still alive."

"He's a McCloud," replied Fox.

"That's what I'm afraid of," she returned with a sigh. "As far as he knows, his grandparents are dead, his parents are dead – it seems like the McCloud family struggles with this theme. Even his maternal grandparents are dead; if he _is_ alive, he probably feels like a shell of a man, having lost so much."

"Then he'll be _happy_ to see us," he told her with a soft smile. "If Falco made it home all right, then Star should have _plenty_ of hope. Just the way you and I have hope for _him_."

"I've not sensed him in _six years_, Fox. He's flesh and blood; I've already lost every Cerinian in existence. Losing him would devastate me. Andross showed no mercy to us; Star escaped with a _lot_ of luck. I mean, we don't even _know_ if he made it all right."

McCloud returned to the bedside and, this time, took his wife's face into _his_ palms. "Krystal," he whispered. He imagined a mental picture of Peppy raising their son to a strong, able-hearted fighter pilot. He watched as a soft smile spread across her face. "Sweetheart, Peppy raised me to become the pilot I am today. He'll raise Star the same way. Look at how Lucy turned out. She's been with us for six years now and she's trustworthy, intelligent and one hell of a good pilot. If anything, Star could have already defeated Andross once and for all. We might get back to our Lylat and find out that he's some sort of hero with a parade in his honor. Let's just stay positive; we're closer to getting home than we've ever come before… now isn't the time for pessimism."

"You're right," she whispered, looking up into his eyes.

Fox offered his wife a smile, kissed her softly upon the tip of her nose then told her, "I'll let Wolf peek at our logbook if it makes him believe us. I don't trust him, but _this_ O'Donnell will have already buried the hatchet between us… you tend to forgive your rival once he's dead. I'm dead here – as strange as that is to me, I'm sure Wolf won't betray someone he respected."

"_He_ does respect you," said Krystal, adding, "But Wolf in _our_ universe lost respect for you. Meanwhile, the Wolf native to _this_ universe respects you deeply, posthumously. I felt it when he laid eyes on you after we rescued him. However, he doesn't trust you anymore because he thinks you were in on everything all along. He thinks you faked your death because he doesn't want to believe something as farfetched as multiple universes."

"Who would believe in such things?" Fox chuckled softly and told her, "I sure wouldn't, had I not lived through it. Anyhow, I'm sure things in our universe are just fine. All right?" Fox had his concerns as well but he also wished to remain mentally positive, knowing she would be able to sense doubt if he allowed it to cloud his mind.

* * *

**Fara Phoenix literally collapsed back across her mattress** sprawled out with her limbs in every direction. She sighed softly then draped her right arm across her forehead. She had briefed the other pilots on the absolute minimum in regards to Eladard because she still wanted to figure everything out in her head.

The last few days had been nothing but her running around at full speed and now it was all catching up to her. The tired vixen didn't even want to think about Eladard until after she'd slept. She was rather proud of the team's handiwork concerning The Behemoth. She'd heard that Marcus and Falco had to improvise concerning their work but she knew the value of ad-libbing a job. She respected their resourcefulness.

The door to her room swished open but she didn't even lift her head. The fennec sniffed at the air then smiled at the familiar scent. "Marcus?"

"Can't sleep, huh?" He stopped in the doorway, leaning against the wall. "You know, it's kinda funny… We were standing in the engine room, right? Falco was holding this scrawny lizard by the neck, forcing him to look at the control panel, so that I could read his mind and, thus, read the controls… And we were working our tails off to get the ship turned around so we could leave… We jettisoned the secondary core then detonated it to push the ship into the defense satellite… all this stuff is going on at once… but all I could think about was you."

Fara's arm slid off her forehead and she sat up. "Pardon?"

"It's not a crappy pickup line," Marcus replied to her unspoken thoughts. "I'd just spoke with you about what you guys found, and after hearing your voice, I started letting my mind wonder. I thought about what you guys were doing; if everyone was all right and how you guys were fairing. I let myself become distracted. I've been thinking about you on and off for the last few days, now."

"…What kind of things are you thinking about?" she asked.

"I keep wondering…" Marcus trailed off. He could sense that she assumed he would try to hit on her but the thought of it almost made him laugh. "How are you going to react if dad comes back with mom?"

His question took the fennec by complete surprise. She slid to the edge of the mattress and draped her arms across her lap with a blank expression on her face. She blinked a few times, repeating his question in her mind a few times. "I've not thought about it but I suppose the honest answer is… I'm going to be indifferent. He's married with offspring; it's not my place to judge or question it. It is only my place to respect his relationship, Marcus. It's not like I'm going to leave the team and hide in a corner because he married your mother."

"I think he'll be surprised," said McCloud. "I think he'll be _glad_ you didn't die, but I also think he'll feel guilty for having moved on, because he'll try to empathize with what you've been through."

Fara shrugged a little. "There are a few things I never told him about me. I'm good at controlling my feelings and emotions, Marcus. Your dad is a great guy and I _really_ liked him but we were only together for a few months as far as our relationship went. I mean, _you and I_ have been through _twice_ as much in a shorter amount of time than he and I went through in a single season together. It's all complicated."

"It's hard to read you," said Marcus. "_YOU_ are complicated. I'm glad for the closure I got from Violet. It was a convoluted couple of days but even when I was _trying_ to work things out with her, I really wasn't all that into it. Is that normal?"

Fara placed her paws over her face and rubbed her eyes. "You have a history of past feelings that were sullied by her immaturity." She folded her paws in her lap and sighed. "That was a little complicated for _me_, too. I didn't want anyone to know it, though, so I just ignored the situation but… the only reason I've refused a relationship with you up to this point is because dating your ex-boyfriend's son is _very_ unconventional and strange."

Her eyes dropped to the floor for a moment, burning a hole in the deck; she secretly scolded herself for bringing up his father in such a tacky way. She then gazed back up at the pilot and, with a serious expression, said, "But you're a great guy. You're probably one of the few men in Lylat capable of understanding me."

"I have an unfair advantage," replied Marcus. He sat down on the floor in her doorway, which caused Fara to offer a slight smile. He then said, "But that's why I've been trying to hang around you so much lately. You're one of the few people in Lylat capable of understanding _me_. You've done so much for my team in such a short time that I can't begin to thank you enough. Not just the Arwing, but you also helped to fix up GreatFox, not to mention your piloting… I could go on and on. The only other woman in my life was a pilot, too… but she despised the thought of being a Mercenary. She loves her father, but hates that he often chose his team over Katt Monroe. Now she sees me doing the same thing and empathizes with her mother. She sees StarFox in a rather dismal light, thinking that I make a mockery of it."

"You don't make a mockery of StarFox," said Fara in a stern tone. "You've rescued people, you've helped Sauria and you successfully destroyed your first capital ship. In fact, you _used it_ to destroy Venom's massive defense satellite. That was very resourceful, Marcus."

McCloud looked at the floor, slightly shy about her compliments. "Thanks." He grew silent for a moment longer, and then glanced up at her. "You were a huge help on Sauria. I wouldn't mind working side by side with you in the near future. I really appreciate your help so far. Without you, the team would have been killed on Venom, killed on Corneria, or harmed countless other times. You believe in us and that's one of the things that make you so attractive to me."

"I appreciate the compliment," she replied in a soft voice. "There is no reason I shouldn't believe in you. Marcus, you have the potential to become twice as heroic as your father. You're quite a pilot – easily on par with him and yet you never graduated from the academy? Not only that, but you're telepathic, so _believe me_ when I say that I trust you to lead this team when we fly together. In addition, you're willing to listen to other pilots, not _just_ myself or Falco but _everyone_ who flies with you. You're much more open minded than most leaders, let alone any man in his early twenties."

"It's who I am," said McCloud with a soft smile. "I appreciate your compliments."

"They're well deserved," said Phoenix. "You're really not _bothered_ by the fact I used to date Fox?"

"It's irrelevant," he told her. "The only thing that matters is the present and the future, not the past. Nothing can change the past but you can change the present and the future anytime you wish. I believe that everyone has a free and natural will but I also believe that some events happen for a _reason_. We can control each other, and ourselves but we cannot control certain events… You were fated to disappear and he was fated to move on. If anything, the relationship you two had was unnatural because it wasn't meant to happen."

"I suppose that's possible," Fara returned in a soft voice. "I've been debating over telling you a few things about myself." She paused then offered a lopsided grin. "But I've got to take a few things into consideration before spouting off about myself. I will tell you when the time is right, I suppose."

Marcus scanned her mind but learned nothing. "It seems as though part of you feels like the time is already right. And yet, you're holding back because this is something you want to sleep on before making such a decision."

"See? Like I said, you understand me." Fara offered him a soft smile.

"Like _I_ said… I have an advantage." Marcus smiled back from his place on the floor in the doorway. "But the fact that you're a simple, honest person really helps. You say what you feel and you mean what you do. You are straightforward, frank and honest. Violet used subterfuge to get her way and was a confusing personality to deal with… but you're so relaxed, concise and pure – it's fantastic."

"While I appreciate the flattery," said Fara with a half grin, "and while you're too naïve to know any better, I don't recommend for you to compare women to one another. Yeah, I know I'm this way and she's that way… but comparing a plump apple and a juicy orange is _still_ making a comparison."

"You're right," Marcus returned, adding, "And I have very little business even talking about her. She's the mother of my kid; nothing more. I respect her and I care about her wellbeing, but that's it."

"Now you're getting it," said Fara in a calm voice with a sly grin. "She's a nice young lady who raises a member of your immediate family – now you're making progress."

"I've only heard you do it once. You said something about me having my father's paws." He offered her a thin smile. "I wasn't offended. Actually, I think it was more along the line of, 'the paws of a McCloud.' Just the same, I didn't feel compared in any way."

"Well, lucky for you," she said with a flirty smile. "You have the unique lips of Marcus. I'm sure Violet never had anything to complain about in that field. Do you know why I respect you? It's because you've never forced yourself on me and, in some measure, offered me control of the situation so that I'd feel the most comfortable each time we shared a kiss. Most of the time, if you kiss someone, they feel comfortable enough to kiss you back – that's natural. You kissed _me_ when we were in that conference room on Venom, right before you went down the vents."

"And, if I recall, you went out the window," Marcus replied with a slight chuckle. "That was pretty daring. But yeah, you're right. I planted that one on you because you deserved it but the other times, I put those situations in _your_ paws."

"I appreciate your respect," she said. "Very few men have shown me respect in my life… my father, General Pepper and the McClouds. I'm pretty sure I've won over Crimson but the respect that _you_ offer is very different."

"How so?" Marcus asked.

"It's a personal respect. Respect like that makes it easy to feel comfortable around you… maybe that's the reason I kissed you in the first place. I'm telling myself it was done so I could get over my past but, I don't use people like that. I mean, I don't even _need_ to use someone like that. I have the uncanny ability to separate my emotions from my actions. I can detach myself if I must. You didn't mind, did you?"

Marcus offered a sheepish grin. "Are you joking? I _welcomed_ each time."

"Flirt." She folded her arms with a glare but her expression melted into a sly grin. "You're a very unique caliber of man, Marcus. I find it easy to be attracted to you the same way I find it easy to feel comfortable with you." Then, after a short pause, she lowered her tone and added, "And you're easy on the eyes."

A relaxed smile covered his muzzle. The pilot, only a handful of years younger than her, stood up in the doorway to her bedroom. "Speaking of flirting… I'd better call it a night before I feel even more tempted to make a move."

Fara leaned back against the wall half slouched. "A clever time to retreat," she mused. "You come, we talk… you get me thinking about things… then you smile and bow out. You're pretty good at this stuff."

His smile broadened ever so slightly. "I decided to make my next move one that nobody would regret later. Like you said earlier, I'm just putting the ball back into your court."

"And I appreciate it." She watched him for a moment then leaned back on her bed. "Sleep well, Marcus."

"…You too." He backed out of the doorway, headed across the living room then made his way out into the hallway. Marcus approached a nearby wall panel and used the controls to activate the night watch program. The hall lighting dimmed somewhat and he rounded the next corner, headed for his room.

Crimson approached him from the opposite direction with a half-cocked eyebrow. "What's with the wagging tail, Mac?"

Marcus continued down the hallway and passed his friend. "Yeah, yeah… Your mom."

O'Donnell glanced over his shoulder at his best friend, noting the energetic tail that swayed with every step. Crimson chuckled to himself and muttered, "Yeah, if you only knew, hot shot." He walked into his room at the end of the hall then, in a voice loud enough for McCloud to hear, shouted, "GET OUT OF MY ROOM, TRICKY! Go bother Marcus or something."

McCloud, from around the corner, heard the dinosaur's rebuttal. "I'm not a pet like Nibbles! Geeze, go sit under a FireBush plant!"

* * *

A/N: _I wrote chapter 23 and 24 together… it was one huge chapter then I added more to it, cut it in half, and now I'm going to do two posts. Chapter 24 is still in the editorial stage, so I'll put it up as soon as I can!_

_Thanks for reading thusfar, sorry it's taken so long… I hope everyone has enjoyed the story so far and I plan to finish this story in under 5-8 chapters. I won't go beyond 30 chapters, unless there's an epilogue. That's for DARN sure. I'll do other stories before I turn THIS one into "War and Peace", you know? I love 50-chapter stories but this isn't one of them… It's already getting close to a quarter-million words, I don't want to make it too much longer than that. Besides, I still have Reflections of Fox AND Peppy left to do.. and people are asking for a SEQUEL to this… I might, but I'd want to finish my story, SPY COOPER first. I also want to finish THE CURSE because it's already at the climatic part. I also have a lot of people asking me to finish SIMILAR PATHS TAKEN. So I will. :D_

_Heck, I even wrote 9 pages towards the update for the Crossover bandwagon story (StarFox comes to Earth… yeah, that one.) _

_So there it is… I have a new job and it's got crazy "all day" hours, lol. Off weekends, though! Oh, wait... I got laid off today... HAHA the joke is obviously on ME!_

_Once Chapter 24 is up, I'll post the new chapter to Reflections of Fox McCloud. I will then return to SPY COOPER in the Sly Cooper Fandom, bang out a bunch of chapters in succession, finish it in a month or two TOPS, then return to both Reflections Stories until they're FINISHED. I will finish THIS story before I finish Reflections of Fox, just because I have a long way to go with that one… and this one is about 6 chapters from completion, give or take one or two. Like I said, earlier, I'm pretty darn sure I can wrap this up by chapter 30 or less. _

_As far as Fara goes, I've pondered her going back into stasis and waking up in the distant future around the same time as Jane Flowers… When the McClouds are somewhat of a memory… or at least too difficult for her to genealogically trace them. Then having a story about Fara Phoenix in the distant future. _

_But what fun is that without StarFox? I mean, it's a StarFox story! You can't have a freakin' starfox story without StarFox! _

_THEN, I decided I should just have Fara and Marcus get close and follow the "Fox & Krystal" ending for the StarFox:Command DS game… in other words, I could have Fox and Krystal retire to a life of peace and quiet… This would leave Mark, his team, and Fara to gallivant around the galaxy… but Fara isn't in that picture with Falco and the children of Lucy and Slippy. But I'm not going to have Fara and Crimson run off together, either… _

_I've also pondered having Fox and Krystal make some sort of conscious choice to go BACK to the Alternative Lylat to help them rebuild, but that's lame and would conflict easily with future games in the series. _

_Destructor ALSO suggested that Fara could give her life in some ultra-heroic way. You know; one that makes her a celebrated hero and household name on Corneria… Interesting, but I like writing about her too much to take her out. _

_On the same token, the person who suggested she goes back into stasis because of injury, also suggested that she could fall in love with another McCloud named Fox, a few generations down the road, and write that the StarFox team is led by Fox Junior, son of Fox Senior, son of Jamie (james), son of Falco McCloud, son of Marcus, son of Fox, son of James. THAT would be interesting… and make it a DISTANT future, where it mirrors the SNES version… but that's going too far, because it would be VERY lame, trying to explain that there's another General Pepper, another Falco, another Peppy, and another Slippy. It was a cute idea, but it would end up being hard to pull off without turning stupid in some way, shape or form. _

_Ultimately, Fara's fate is completely up in the air. What if the new StarFox DOES have Marcus in it? What if Marcus is dating a female pilot that's not Fara? Do I really want to write about him and her breaking up? LOL. Just the same, I plan to give it some thought, and, of course, I'd prefer to just do it the way the fans want it to be. Short of doing what Wulf51 did by giving Fara and Krystal a lesbian story. After all, she already did it and she did it better than I could have, lol. _

_So, what should I do with Fara? Romantic scene with Marcus? Kids with him? Heroic death? Heroic almost-death that leads back to Stasis? What's the deal? What do you guys want?_

_TELL ME! _

_-k _


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: _Okay, since I no longer HAVE A JOB, I'm going to write chapter 25. I promised the people waiting for Spy Cooper that I would return to their story the first week of October. But without a job, I have lots of time on my hands. I'm going to write chapter TWENTY-FIVE for this story, THEN I'm going to take a short Hiatus and FINISH Spy Cooper through to its conclusion. By the way, I posted chapter 23 the other day... In that short time, I've gotten 6 reviews (so far) and 85 hits/views. You guys rock. It's only been like... what? 3 days? If that? I really appreciate it. _

Chapter -24-  
_Stretched Thin_

**

* * *

**

**Marcus collapsed on his father's chair** at the very center of the bridge. He stared over at ROB64 then sighed. A voice from behind caused his ears to perk but, having sensed their presence already, it didn't startle him.

"Why do you still use that outdated piloting droid? I've asked Fox and Slippy a hundred times to get rid of him."

Marcus recognized the voice; it belonged to his godfather. "Falco, ROB64 is more than just a robot who's been upgraded one too many times by Slippy."

The avian folded his winged arms across his chest and glanced over at the robotic pilot. "Yeah? I find that hard to believe. He's not much more than _anything_ these days." Lombardi, who felt no guilt in talking low of the antiquated 'model 64' droid, offered a shrug to Rob who, in turn, shrugged back.

"Your insults don't bother me," said ROB.

Lombardi pressed the fingers into the side of his beak, cracking his knuckles. "I'm not insulting you, grandpa. It's the truth; you're old and outdated." He jerked his head to the left then to the right, popping his joints.

"I'm old and outdated?" asked ROB in a casual, monotone voice. "Have you taken a look in the mirror lately?"

"Stop, both of you. You're _both _grumpy old men anymore." Marcus stood up from the central seat and approached the unit. He placed his paw on the robot's chest then pressed two buttons, which allowed the chest to open. He drew the hatch door open then reached into the robot's torso. He closed his paw around a palm-sized computer chip and pulled it free. The fox then turned to Lombardi and held it up.

"One and a half terabytes of text-based files with a few photographs; symbols, memorable locations, the senate and so on," Marcus began.

Falco shrugged with indifference. "That just proves my point. I read the new models can put four terabytes on a chip half that size. ROB's built from parts that are older than dirt. The technology is so outdated that it's just sad. Wouldn't you rather have a top of the line droid piloting our ship while we're out fighting? It could be the difference between losing GreatFox in an attack and having the ship salvaged."

McCloud shook his head. "If we lose this ship in an attack, we'll get a better one. This entire ship is just as outdated, Falco. And yet, you're not suggesting we replace it. Why? It's probably because you're attached to it."

Lombardi cocked his head. "Yeah… I guess I'm a little partial to it," he admitted.

"The contents of this chip hold an archived encyclopedia about Cerinia that came from mom's shuttle. She hid this one in ROB64, made a copy, and put it on a solid-state hard disk drive. That copy is in her safe deposit box on Corneria. I don't get access to it until I'm twenty-five."

"But since I've returned with news that they've survived, you still have ties to Cerinia. She's not dead, remember? Sure, ROB held the key to your bloodline on a chip in his chest and that's really cool of him… but your mother isn't dead, neither is your father. That droid belonged to your _grandfather_, Star."

"Marcus," the younger pilot corrected. "I know, you're just so used to that name. You've called me by it for sixteen years. Heck, it's your first slip up. I sure can't fault you for it. Anyhow, if my parents decide to replace him then that's fine. But I've gone six years thinking they were dead. I've latched on to things that remind me of them. Now that I've latched on to ROB, I don't want to trade him in for a new model. That's up to them but I doubt they'd scrap him… if anything, they'd put him into storage or something."

Falco shrugged, gesturing with his right hand by tossing it upwards. "Fox always was a sentimental packrat. He kept the goofiest stuff just because it reminded him of something. Anyway, I'm off to bed." He walked to the double doors. They slid apart on their metal tracks, grunting somewhat. He knelt down and looked closely at the rusted metal groove. "How in the hell did this ship get so rusty, anyhow?"

"It sat in the jungle of Sauria for six years," Marcus replied. "During the attack, it took a beating. The hull was breached, the damn main core was jettisoned and ROB saved this ship by landing it. Andrew Oikonny, of all people, kept it from getting looted."

"So humidity got in through the hole in the plating and the hanger," Falco surmised.

Marcus nodded. "You got it. We've had it refitted, using parts from the Phoenix Shuttle bone yard. We've patched it up, got it a new core and completed repairs, to some degree, on the hanger bay doors. As far as what is left… well, some of the internal doors still stick on their tracks."

Falco glanced over his shoulder again and asked, "Is it true you still have nightmares about seeing us get taken out?"

The vulpine nodded with a frown. "Crimson told you, huh? I have nightmares about finding Peppy dead in his sleep, too."

Lombardi nodded; a frown marred his beak. "I'm not sure why it's taking so long for them to arrive, but they're probably running tests. Who knows, they might think I didn't make it. They have no way to verify anything. Plus the carrier is a lot bigger than my Sky Claw. It's almost double the size of this cruiser, for Pete sake." He scratched the back of his neck with his left hand then decided to change the subject, just in case his parents didn't make it after all. "So, are you _really_ getting close to Fara? Isn't that like, weird for you or something?"

"Look at her," Marcus said, grateful the falcon took his feelings about his parents into consideration. "She's pretty damn hot for being over fifty years old. I think she's _your_ age isn't she?" He grinned somewhat then added, "They woke her up a year after dad disappeared. A little over five years later she meets me. She was in suspended animation. Physically, she's going to be twenty-six next month. I'm twenty-two. Besides, she refuses to interfere with dad's marriage. She dated him for a little more than a season – two tops… then had five years to come to terms that he was married and had kids; she read about it in old tabloid papers found on the Net. It's not like they had children together or anything so it wasn't like she was going through a divorce."

"That's true," Falco replied. "I suppose ya' can't compare a girl he dated for a few months, thirty years ago, with a girl he's been married to over twenty years. But Fara is the reason he broke up with your mother, before you were born."

"How so?" Marcus furrowed his brows in confusion.

Lombardi ran his fingers back through the feathers on his forehead. "For all he knows, he sent Fara to her death on a mission without backup. He loved her so freakin' much it was almost repulsive. He refused to date Krystal even after she'd been on the team for _two years_." To his words, Marcus could only blink in surprise. Falco continued. "So she finally tells him she sensed his secret feelings for her. She demands that he give in to his heart, because after eight years of depression, he was finally able to let himself be enamored with someone… She told Fox to just let himself love freely… they began a relationship and even promised one another to be together forever. Then a mission came up."

Marcus sat back down in the command chair. ROB went back to the helm and the fox rotated in the chair to face his godfather. "The one where she almost died?"

"She's almost died a bunch of times," Falco explained. "But this mission was different. See, the last time he almost lost her, he freaked. He was on this mission with her on Fortuna and they started getting close. She almost died because of my idiocy. Then Fox _proposed_ to her. It blew her mind and surprised everyone else. Peppy was satisfied, thinking he'd followed James' request to the letter. So he retired from the team and shortly after, his wife, Vivian, died from illness. Fox and Krystal struggle... _struggled_ at first but he refuses to… how do I word this…"

"Open his whole heart to mom?"

Falco shrugged. "Sure. It sounds a little weird… 'open his whole heart' sounds… I don't know. It sounds too feminine. But anyway, that works. So, he was afraid to catch feelings because of what happened to Fara. But Krystal wears him down and he opens up to her… and everything is great until she was nearly killed again. Then he starts acting distant to her. Krystal can sense he loves her, but based on the way he starts acting, she thinks she must have disappointed him somehow. So she tries to appeal to him with mushy stuff and he responds by kicking her off the team. He said it was too dangerous and that he couldn't stand seeing her get killed, as if it was _bound_ to happen. Krystal doesn't get it… she thinks he disrespects her and sees her as a liability, bound to get herself killed. She disappears and joins the Cornerian Air Guard and flies with Bill."

Marcus blinked. His eyes widened. "Then they dated for a very short time," he blurted out to Falco's surprise. "But only because he treats her the way she wanted to be treated… with respect. But it doesn't take long for her to realize she was acting out on the rebound. So she and Bill break up, but she continues to fly with him. In the mean time, she starts dating Panther."

Falco grimaced. "Yeah, I'm not sure why she felt the need to date around. Fox tried that crap, too. He found out real quick that it was just a bunch of hocus pocus."

McCloud scooted to the edge of the seat cushion. "Dad dated around after he and mom broke up, during the engagement?"

"No way," said Falco. "He dated around after _Fara _died. He had a very short relationship with Miyu Lynx. But he was so obsessed with Phoenix that Miyu broke it off. Fox moped around for almost a decade. Then he got a job and went out to Sauria. That's where he met your mother and it took him _two years_ to get the nerve to kiss her. What a dork, huh?"

"Well, to answer your earlier question, Falco," Marcus mused. He leaned back in the seat again and sighed. "Yeah, Fara and I talked a little while ago. She's got a great personality and, let's face it, she's hot."

Falco brought his hand to his face, pressing his palm flat against his beak. "How's Fara feel about all of this?"

Marcus casually told him, "She kissed _me_ first. Who else in Lylat would understand Fara the way I do? I respect her for who she is, for the pilot she is, and for her strategic eye. I also respect her for being the woman that she is. She told me she doesn't care about my past mistake; she sees me for who I am. As far as I'm concerned, she's one of the only women in Lylat who can understand _me_."

"Well, it looks like… I don't know. It's just weird but, in a twisted sort of way, it makes sense." Lombardi shrugged then asked, "How did you get your father's sunglasses, anyhow?"

Marcus grinned at the avian's attempt to change the subject yet again. "Well, I sort of borrowed them the day of the attack. I had them in my pocket… It's a long story." His slight smile disappeared. "I'd really rather not talk about it because it reminds me…"

Falco approached Marcus and fluffed the kid's hair. "You're old enough to drink, bud. I'm telling you that they're alive and their marriage is strong and more intense than ever before. Everything is right in their world. They'll be back soon. Just tell yourself that it's all over and those nightmares will stop."

Marcus looked down to the deck. "Have you ever seen something that haunts you every time you close your eyes?"

"For several years, my conscience ate me up because I did something… illegal." Falco saw the youth lift his head. The avian swallowed then said, "I sort of... well... I became a vigilante, once. This girl was hurt by a group of guys that used to rival my old gangs. They were known as the Street Kings. I, uh…" He frowned, looking for the words to continue.

Marcus lifted a paw and put it on Falco's forearm. "Don't… I can see it. Not quite in the detail you remember but the thought of it still makes you emotional enough for me to sense… Don't put yourself through the torture of trying to describe it, all right?"

Lombardi shrugged away from Marcus and walked back towards the double doors. They grunted apart again. He stopped in the doorway then glanced over his shoulder. "Look, Star… _Mark_. I put those nightmares out of my head so the 'torture' is_ over_. But nothing changes what I did. Those people might have died when the Aparoids attacked but they never lived to see it and nothing will bring them back. You, on the other hand, should rest easy about what you saw… first of all, it wasn't your fault that it happened. Secondly, the people you thought were dead are still alive. Peppy died from age; again, it wasn't your fault. You can't let this stuff run your life, kiddo. My wife and your mother are the only people who ever knew what I did… I didn't intend for you to find out."

"I'm …sorry, Falco. We all have regrets that haunt us. You're right, though… It's time I should heal."

"Sorry if it seems like I snapped at you," Lombardi told his godson. "I'm just not ready for that anecdote to go public, you know? I'm not proud of what I did out of anger. I've kept control of my temper ever since, because I never want to be a gang thug – ever again."

"Understood, Sir. It's a done issue."

"Falco – just Falco." He paused then added, "I'm just keyed up because I've not seen action in so long. I'm going to catch some sleep then I'll be fine."

"Can I ask you one more thing?" asked Marcus.

"Yeah, kid… anything you want."

McCloud smiled a little. "How's Miss Katt and Violet?"

Lombardi ran his fingers up through the feathers on his forehead again. "They're hiding out on Katina until this whole thing blows over. They have a baby to think about right now. You'll see'em soon, I promise. It's just complicated right now and I'm out here on the front line to make sure things stay quiet on their front. The truth is, Katt and I got separated a few weeks before Andross attacked us. When I saw her the other day, we both agreed we're going to be together again but we're not going to rush it, either. I might fly with you, Ted and Vivian for a little while. I'll see Katt a few days a week, then I'll move back in with her _if and when_ the timing is right. Don't worry about that, bud. Just do what you gotta do to make Fara happy. I usually don't yammer on like this, but …hell I've never been an active godparent, either. So, you know, do your thing and stuff. Just don't screw it up because you McClouds are emotional dweebs when it comes to women."

"Don't I know that," Marcus murmured, thinking of how he acted around Violet in the past. "Good night. I'd like to have a team meeting tomorrow morning."

"See you then," replied the cerulean feathered pilot. Lombardi walked off the bridge and the double doors grunted shut.

Marcus turned back towards the main view screen and sighed. "I don't care what he says, ROB. You're irreplaceable."

"He's just upset," said the robot. "He suddenly realized he's too _old _and _outdated_ for the 'bad boy' persona to work for him anymore. He doesn't like that his knee implant has him sitting on his tail feathers more than he's used to and part of him is terrified he'll be sitting in a wheelchair in only ten more years."

"He's being a little paranoid; he'll be fine."

ROB nodded. "He doesn't like being reminded that he's in his fifties. Fara, another person his age, has somehow cheated aging and is now less than half his age. He's letting it get to him, so he tries to counter it by acting like a thirty year old around his wife, who sent him back to GreatFox because she couldn't keep up with him. She separated from him because he acted ten years younger than he was… now he's trying to act twenty-five years younger than he is… and it frustrates her a little. Once the war is over, Katt Monroe-Lombardi's percentage of likelihood to resume a marriage with him is in the ninety percentile. But not until he's ready to retire from flying around Lylat. She'll wait for him, she always has."

Marcus's eyes widened. "Are you kidding? You gathered all of that just from listening?"

"Would you rather have a perceptive pilot who calls it as they see it or a mathematician at the helm?" ROB then added, "I may not be able to count the fractals in a grain of sand in fewer than one point one-six nanoseconds like the newer models but they wouldn't have known to land a dreadnaught in Moon Mountain Pass in order to keep the hull intact. I've earned my keep; Fox would never replace me."

Amused, Marcus simply said, "Not so long as Slippy and Theodore are around to make the necessary repairs." He looked at the chip in his paw then tossed it across the bridge to ROB. The robot caught it with grace then replaced the chip back into his torso and closed the maintenance panel.

**

* * *

**

_The next morning…_

**Marcus paced the bridge in silence**. The soft whirring of Falco's mechanical knee joint filled the otherwise silent room. The avian, plagued with restlessness, swiveled his head to face the rest of the team, including Tricky. Vivian and Ted sat at the con, watching their young leader. Fara sat on the edge of the communications console, sidesaddle, and Crimson occupied the 'captain's chair' at the center of the bridge. Lombardi watched the two young pilots seated at the helm. He could tell they already respected and looked up to their Wing Commander; his eyes moved beyond them to the pacing fox in question.

McCloud pivoted on his heel and began to pace back across the front of the deck. He looked up at ROB64 then sighed. The silence became too much all of a sudden. "Falco and I were lucky to survive The Behemoth. We couldn't make it to the bridge because of the enemy numbers. We're lucky to have made it to the engineering section; if we didn't re-route navigations through the engine room control panel, we would have failed our objective. But that's not why I called you guys up here. See, the thing is, we have underestimated Venom's numbers. That ship had several _thousand_ soldiers, many of which escaped on lifeboats that rained back over Venom. _Now_ we have troops on Eladard, too." He paused and looked up at the crew. "A bio weapon! They have some nerve!"

"Marcus," Fara said with a soft frown. "At least we know it's there, now. No one wanted to redirect our focus off of the main job but…"

McCloud lifted his paws to quiet her. "I'm not disagreeing with you, Fara. We _should_ make this bio weapon the priority, even though we promised ourselves to a different mission. Our priority job may be this new secret weapon but… Corneria asked us to strike the Venom defense line."

Falco looked up with a semi-cocked left brow. "We did that; we struck their defense line when we slammed that ship into their defense satellite. We can't be in two places at once. Your father needs to get his fuzzy ass back to this side of the galaxy. Slippy, Lucy, Amanda and Krystal would even the score. Fox would take them to the first objective. Marcus, Vivian, Ted and I would be team two. We'd complete the second objective of _patrolling_ so those scaly jerk-offs don't strike Corneria while it's wounded and down. That would leave you and Fara to go back to Eladard."

"We can't depend on someone who might not even be coming," Marcus retorted in a firm voice. "I don't want to hear about them anymore because I don't want to get my hopes up. You came without incident. Surly they would have been right behind you if they could have brought the Carrier back the same way. That thing is huge; it may not have worked the same way and they could very well be dead. As far as I knew, they've been dead for _six years_ and I've managed. Yeah, I want them to be here, but it has been days without any sign… Furthermore, we'd need an _army_ to stop the lizards on Eladard."

"Not really," said Fara. She shifted her weight on the upholstered top that encased the communications console then offered a slight smile. "It's simple, really. If you send a platoon of men to fight a platoon of men, you get a battlefield with a lot of physical destruction all around you."

Crimson said, "We don't need to turn a hospital into the next Corneria Capital City." To his words, Ted and Vivian nodded in silent agreement.

"Commando style?" asked McCloud. "Wouldn't it make more sense for trained rangers to sneak in and clear out the bad guys? I'm sure as hell not trained to do it."

Phoenix slid off the communications panel and approached the large viewer screen at the front of the bridge. She folded her arms across her chest, with her nose just inches away from the high definition plastic film. "I purposely don't think aloud in my head now that I've met you, Marcus. A girl has to keep _some_ secrets, right? The thing is, I never actually told anyone how I almost died all those years ago," she began. She guaged McCloud's expression for change by watching him closely in her peripheral vision.

"…You were shot down in a fighter," said Falco. "Fox ordered you to go on a run; we were all stretched thin and you said you could handle the run on your own. It's a decision he regrets to this day because it cost you your life… or so we thought."

"Or so you thought," Fara repeated. "I said I could handle that run because I _could_ handle that run. In fact, I _did_ handle that run and finished way ahead of schedule. Not only that… my Black Box Recorder didn't register a single scratch during my mission." Tricky, over in the front corner, tilted his head but said nothing.

"…What?" Falco blinked. His restless leg bouncing came to a complete stop. "What're you talking about? Your family found you in the ejection box; you were injured beyond recognition and slipped into a coma shortly after the rescue."

Fara licked her lips with apprehension but kept her nose only an inch from the main view screen. "It was a cover up. On the official roster, I was the Chief Test Pilot of any and _all _prototype aircraft, Falco." Her tail flickered from left to right then she sighed. "When my parents found out what happened in the unofficial report, they were furious. Not just with me, but with Corneria; they threatened a lawsuit. Litigation would have attracted a lot of media attention. Corneria scrambled to cover everything up and came to an agreement. They promised to pay for me to be put into cryogenic stasis if my parents agreed to claim I was dead so that my mission parameters weren't exposed. The reason why my parents wrote such a large check to fund the research facility is really a no-brainer… The insane grant was to help their research become more involved; dad wanted them to cure me _sooner_, you know?"

Falco sat up in his chair. "So what _mission parameters_ are you referring to, Fara?"

"I never really told Fox… or _anyone_…" She turned to the group and said, "I was a _black-cell_ covert ops and counter-terrorist operative." She panned her gaze over the dumbstruck faces of StarFox, including the dinosaur. "Come on, now… think about it; how many prototype planes was Corneria making for their Chief Test Pilot to fly?"

"…One?" Falco blinked in confusion.

"Exactly," she said. "The Arwing – that was it. One prototype fighter isn't enough of a reason to have an exclusive Chief Test Pilot, don't you think; they had Test Squadron Delta but… then they hired me?"

She shrugged then asked, "Remember when you guys rescued me on my father's ship? Back when we first met? In actuality, I was just waiting for that moron lizard to get me to his getaway vehicle. I wasn't about to flip him over my shoulder and break his ribs in front of all those people. He had a gun and there were many bystanders; not a good equation. If that gun went off because I got excited…" She shook her head and shrugged.

Fara sighed thoughtfully. "I don't even want to _think_ about it. They were all in danger, so I was going to let this guy take me to a safer location. Then Fox and his crew showed up and I… really just thought it was cute that a ragtag ensemble rescued everybody. Corneria had mentally conditioned me; they told me that the things I did would _never_ receive recognition. I was already in the mindset that my work would never make me famous – it was part of the job. But flying with StarFox let me be the heroine publically in a different light. My parents wanted me to be a freakin' scholar, not some tomboy fighter pilot who walks around with guns blazing. But Corneria had other ideas and I felt that I could do _more _good by training to become one of their phantoms. I had no issues with the subterfuge."

Falco stood up from his seat and put his feathery hands upon his hips. "You're telling me that Fara Phoenix, the demure little vixen with a red dress and wide green eyes… is a trained super agent?"

"The year I met you guys, I was a quarter-way through my third year of training," Fara told them. "I was at the top of my class, Falco. I came from money so everyone thought that I would be a flake but those are the obstacles of an underrated rich girl, you know?" She pointed to Crimson's hip then motioned for him to surrender the sidearm on his belt. He followed her gestures and retrieved the pistol from his holster then tossed it to her. She showed them his pistol, waving her free paw in front of it, modeling the object like a televised saleswoman.

"See this, everyone?" She effortlessly disassembled it with a few graceful movements of her paws.

Tricky's eyes widened and he whispered the word, "Cool!"

Fara easily placed each component between her fingers, holding them in a way that kept her palms free for use. "I had to learn to do it _faster_ than this during my first year. A lot of this is muscle memory, which I lost during my 'slumber'. When I woke up from stasis, I went back to Corneria. My department had been shut down for well over fifteen years by that point in time. Times changed; they were afraid of people who were trained like me. They promised a full retirement pension and silent pardon, so long as I retired with a smile and kept my nose dry."

Vivian Hare leaned back in her seat and folded her paws over her tummy. "What were you trained to do?"

In the time it took for the rabbit to speak, Fara took all nine parts of the disassembled blaster and put it back together. The fennec lifted her gaze, smiled a little and said, "Survive a suicide mission. They picked me based on the way I tested in the academy. I had the ability to separate my emotions from my work. I could rewire and steal an enemy fighter after infiltrating and detonating an enemy base, then fly back, dump the fighter, dress to the nines and walk into a social for my parents without batting a lash.

"It actually happened once; afterwards, I showed up at my father's dinner party and played golf with the Prime Minister in a ball gown," she continued. "Keep in mind… this happened _after_ I dispatched a Venom terror network who wanted to bomb the Military Headquarters on Katina. I believe I played a par – Sixty-three on an eighteen-hole course that evening. That's another thing: They felt I was such a good agent because I got the job done, but _also_ because I had an eidetic memory; I recall _every_ detail."

"What's 'golf'?" asked Tricky to no one in general.

Lombardi's arms dropped to his side, counting on his fingers to divide sixty-three swings into eighteen holes. "You averaged three and a half strokes per hole? Jeeze laweeze; Fox never knew you were a secret agent or whatever?"

"I dislike bragging; no, he didn't," Fara replied. "I wasn't even allowed to tell my parents; I certainly couldn't tell Fox. But he _did_ save my life when that Ion missile hit my Arwing, during the training mission. I'd have crashed or been captured and overwhelmed on a battlefield. He was clever and earned my trust and respect. I allowed myself to fall in love at the time but like I said… Corneria brought me on for my unique ability to separate emotions from work and for my ability to hyper-focus on things. At any rate, the reason I'm telling you guys about this is because Marcus and I are _more_ than qualified to storm the medical research facility. If you have too many people, like a platoon, it becomes a battlefield. Just two, however, and you can sneak in, take out the enemy in silence, then sneak back out. I would also want to double check on Jane and make sure she's safe then leave without anyone noticing."

Theodore shifted his weight in his chair then removed his favored wide-brimmed hat. "How long did you do these kinds of missions?"

"Sometimes as many as two jobs in a week," Fara replied in a soft tone. "In the short time I flew alongside of Fox McCloud, I probably completed twice as many missions than StarFox had flown sorties."

Crimson recalled the way Fara handled herself the other day, when they dropped off Jane Flowers. He remembered the way she was able to dual-wield her weapons while on Tricky's back. His eyes flitted over to the dinosaur on the floor, surprised that he was being quiet for once then turned back to Fara and asked, "Ever get caught or receive any public attention?"

The fennec shrugged somewhat. "Almost… They once sent me in to meet a contact at the center of Meteor Land Theme Park but the new General didn't know any better. I was actually angry with them because of the situation. You see, if my _agent status_ cover was blown, I would have lost my level-9 'top secretclearance' by doing a _public_ mission. That would have been embarrassing." She tossed the reassembled weapon back to Crimson.

She offered a grin when he caught it then she continued speaking. "I couldn't complain about it – I was following orders, but I wasn't happy. But I did my job and got a pat on the back from the new General… then I came home, showered and drank some tea. It turns out that Pepper sent me on that mission for less complicated reasons; he had _no idea_ that I was a Black Cell Operative, commonly referred to as a '_BCO_' at the time. I was already getting _too much_ public attention because I was a key witness in a court case that identified spies in the upper ranks. Combine that with being rich and a bachelorette… can you imagine what would have happened if I was somehow spotted doing a one-person military operation at an abandoned theme park? One errant journalist taking my picture would have ended my career."

Fara drew in a deep breath then sighed softly. "Needless to say, Marcus and I will take the two-man job on Eladard – we don't need to call on Corneria for help."

McCloud could sense the truth in her every spoken word. The flabbergasted fox simply stared at her. Fara saw his expression then added, "I've even _let_ people kick my tail in physical altercations in public – on purpose – so as not to blow my cover. Losing a fight takes a certain amount of _role-playing_… I guess I could have been an accomplished actress if I wanted. I often had to hold back from utilizing what I learned. It was second nature because of my training. And, who knows? Maybe that's why the government thought of me as a deadly weapon… The sad part is there were times I had to _forgo_ defending myself in small squabbles so that my agent-status and my abilities would remain a secret. But with that branch of the Military closed for over a decade and a half… I suppose it's alright to talk about it, now. I hope you guys still trust me."

"We trust you," said Crimson. Everyone nodded in agreement to his statement. "It all makes sense now… the way you acted back on Sauria – it feels like that was ages ago. Just the same, we trust you." He leaned back in the cushy chair then he added, "Just do us a favor: Don't hold back in the future. No one is going to complain if you jump into a room of a hundred soldiers… then kick their asses. I _promise_ they won't complain, especially if you do it to protect an injured teammate."

"I was trained to know _when_ to hold back," said Fara. "Being surrounded by a hundred armed men is one of those times… You don't let them know you're dangerous and they won't open fire. You wait until their guard is down then escape and sabotage their operation. You leave like a phantom, even if it means faking your own death somehow. Let them think you died when their base explodes… that sort of thing."

"Unbelievable," Falco whispered with a shake of his head. "You're like Rambo-Vixen." He lifted his eyes to the confused gaze of the younger pilots. "What? You kids don't know who John Rambo-triever is? The baddest Labrador Retriever Commando to ever star in an action movie? He kicked a lot of ass; she kicked a lot of ass… it's like they're one in the same."

The fennec chuckled at his comparison. "Rambo was the name of the character, not the canine," said Fara with a mild grin. She turned to the rest of the group and saw their curious eyes on her. "He was a battlefield expert in combating _Gorilla_ warfare. He took out more apes in a single jungle than some platoons could do with a group of tanks."

"At least _someone_ knows who I'm talking about," Falco retorted.

McCloud leaned back against the view screen, adjacent to Fara. His shoulders pressed against the flat panel and his arms folded across his chest. "When do we go down there with guns blazing?" asked Marcus.

"Nightfall," Fara replied. "We arm ourselves with silenced weapons and …you've blasted a few lizards in a cockpit – are you sure you're going to be okay with gunning them down in person?"

"They bombed Corneria City!" the fox erupted. "Sensing the suffering on that magnitude _really_ took a lot out of me. It's still so fresh; all I want is revenge right now."

"If you become emotionally attached," Fara warned, "then you invest hatred into your heart. You need to become detached if you want to retain your humanity. You're defending yourself and trying to survive; you're trying to achieve an objective to protect the innocent."

Marcus took a moment to calm his breathing. He then said, "I felt the attackers' hate and I felt the loss and I felt the suffering. I'm swimming in emotion – more than just my own."

She face faulted then said, "I need a stoic counterweight on this mission."

"I can stay calm under pressure." Marcus pushed away from the view screen and moved to the middle of the bridge. "We're all miserable. We're all stretched too thin. We all agree that we can't be in two places at once because there are only six pilots. I'd hoped that Violet, Katt, Bliss and Dash would come to our aid but they have other priorities. Cornerian forces have an incredible clean up job ahead of them. They have to defend the planet while it's wounded and they have to perform multiple rescue operations as well as figure out what to do with so many wounded people. There is no way they can treat all the radiation-sickness patients. It's not possible to attend to everyone at once because the hospitals that survived are so far away. I'm sure they're struggling and I know Bill has his paws full. Fara has a point; we found out about this and if we tell anyone, there is a good chance that Venom's counter-intelligence will force Eladard's hand before we can stop them. We should go tonight, before anyone can do anything."

Marcus turned back to ROB64 and asked, "Has there been any major activity or troop movement on Eladard since we left the surface, two days ago?"

"Negative," replied the piloting droid.

"I want at least _one_ pilot on standby," said McCloud. "If we suddenly need air support, I want to know that I have the option to call for it. Falco," he turned to the avian who, in turn, gazed back. "I want you to lead a team of three out and start trouble with Venom's remaining supply lines. I want you to attract their attention; talk shit to the enemy if you must. That way they don't know StarFox is about to sucker punch their Bio Weapon right it the kisser. Just wait for the signal before you launch from GreatFox. I want you guys to wait until we begin our attack on the weapon before you guys leave GreatFox... They're probably watching us... and they'll see the team launch from our ship and head towards them... They'll ponder how we could be in two places at once and assume we have nothing to do with Eladard. Just the same, don't launch until we give you the signal because we want them to see you guys leave GreatFox right before we get our paws dirty."

A grin tugged at Falco's beak. His brows lowered and his grin evolved into a devious, sinister smile. "Run a sortie for the sheer fact of getting a kill score?" He nodded emphatically. "I'm all over it. I already know exactly how the roster should look, too."

Fara tilted her head, turning her attention to Lombardi. "Go on."

Falco nodded and unfolded his arms. He walked over to the helm and placed a feathery wingtip on Vivian's shoulder. "Peppy the Third, here, is going to provide air support. Why? Because I saw the way she multi-locked her targets and dropped those detonation devices on those turrets when we attacked The Behemoth. She was accurate and quick. Then, she pulled back so that she didn't get in anyone else's way. Very nice piloting. After seeing what she could do, I say she's the pilot for that job."

Then, Lombardi walked over to Theodore. He took the frog's large hat and put it on the amphibian's head. "I'd want this guy on my team, because if we run into any large ships, supply cruisers, escorted barges… he could disable them and monitor their shields." Then Falco hooked a thumb back at Crimson O'Donnell. "And I want _him_ with me, because he's a rarity: An aggressive pilot who doesn't take _too many_ unnecessary risks. That's important stuff. Plus, he's not a glory hog."

"Like you," added Fara with a grin.

Falco smirked at her. "Like me; you got it, sister."

"Then it's settled," said Marcus to his team. "Let's go and relax for a few hours, then we launch on multiple fronts and kick some serious ass."

"All right!" shouted Tricky, getting to his feet. "I'm going to stay on the GreatFox and watch you guys blow stuff up – oh yeah."

Fara closed her fingers around McCloud's forearm. Even with Falco's return and even with the news that Fox was still alive, she was trying to get over her ex, knowing he was married and had moved on. "Marcus, let's go down to the gym. I want to teach you some basic evasion techniques and get you ready for this job. I learned more than just tactical ways to survive. Learning how to rebuild an engine, learning how to hide and learning how to separate your emotions from your work are all important ways to survive on your own." She gave his arm a soft squeeze. "Let's go. Everyone else, go and relax so you're rested for work later on."

* * *

**Wolf O'Donnell's head lowered** but his singular gaze lifted, watching the frog who sat at a table in front of his cell. The jaunty little amphibian placed a small card onto a neatly organized pile then clapped his hands together. Wolf tightened his jaw and snorted. "That's the third time you've won a solitaire game; can't you play something else, damn it?" 

"Like what?" Slippy asked casually. "Spades? Why did you want to play? What rules? Jailhouse cutthroat rules, right? What're we playing for – fruit, crackers and cigarettes?" He tilted his head towards the lupine and smirked.

"Well, well," Wolf replied casually. "That's almost funny; you've developed a little courage since I last saw you."

"I'm also married now, too."

Wolf balked. "Yeah right; I heard she disappeared right after your kid was born." He watched the frog stand then flaunt a wedding ring on his webbed left ring finger. The smirk on O'Donnell's face tugged at the corner of his muzzle until it evolved into a grin. "Weren't _you_ supposed to be dead, too? I'm pretty sure that's why Theodore Toad and Lucy Hare came together and built that Gravity bomb – he wanted to avenge his father's death. Where's the bird with the crappy attitude at? I guess you're _all _in on this together."

"That's nice," said the frog in a dismissive tone. He began to gather the cards together and shuffled them.

The metallic door at the far end of the room swished open and Fox McCloud walked in with a blaster on his hip. He pointed to Slippy then hooked a thumb over his shoulder towards the door. "I want you to report to the lab so Lucy can take a lunch break. But first, your wife is waiting for you on the bridge."

Toad approached the humming laser bars with a smirk, said, "I told ya so," and then walked out of the detention area. Wolf's gaze returned to the pile of cards sitting on the table, refusing to look at the vulpine. He folded his arms across his chest, keeping his muzzle lowered. He leaned back against the bulkhead in his cell then lifted his left foot, placing his heel against the wall, near his tail.

Fox licked his lips, paced in front of the cell and offered a soft sigh. He said nothing for the moment. He pivoted on his heel then continued back in front of the cell, acting as though he simply intended to guard the cell.

Wolf tightened his jaw again. He couldn't help but to bite the bait. "What the hell are you doing? Guard duty for the leader? Are you stupid?"

Fox paused then turned away from the cell. "What if I could prove we're from another universe, we just want to go home and we don't have any desire to keep you locked up?" His question seemed too irresistible to ignore.

"What're you babbling about?"

McCloud shook his head with a sigh. "I'm not staying here to fix the problems of this universe. I didn't believe this kind of stuff existed and I plan to leave right away. This is just a short setback. I just wanted to know what the hell happened here before I leave. _TWO_ planets were _destroyed_? How in the hell did this occurrence _not_ crush Corneria with debris?"

O'Donnell grumbled softly. "The fleet convened between Corneria and Katina to shot down the debris," Wolf replied with a calm tone. "I was hired by the Government to fly in and drop timed charges and navigate the fresh debris. It was a suicide mission and paid so much money that it didn't matter if I lived or not; my team was dead, I was broke at the time and they provided me with the parts to get my ship running. I took the job. Survival made me popular again for a short amount of time… I enjoyed it while it lasted."

"This is all because I broke up with Krystal?"

"What's so damn hard to understand about that?" Wolf clinched his paws into fists then said, "You had an innocent, intelligent, telepathic woman with amazing talents. You hurt her, she changed… she became numb to the pain then she learned how to use her telepathy in reverse… force her thoughts into the minds of others… she could make another pilot see blood and feel pain. He would think he's been impaled by his flight stick then reach for the ejection button. She'd fly by and pick off his escape pod; he wouldn't stand a chance. She became more corrupt with every passing week. Eventually, she removed the spell stones on Sauria and used them to make a weapon capable of destroying Fichina."

"How did she learn to make such a weapon?" Fox asked with an incredulous demeanor.

"I suppose she captured or seduced a genius male, telepathically read their mind, built the weapon, then strapped it to their back and delivered it to the target. She's resourceful and can read the minds of her victims. She can learn their fear then make them experience it. While they're surrounded with incredible horror, she'll walk right through the battlefield and take down the commanding officer – she could end an incursion on a grand scale in under half of an hour this way. She 'liberated' the Sharp Claw from Sauria, destroyed it and united them with their distant cousins on Venom. She became the queen of the reptiles and led them to victory after victory."

Fox kept his back to the lupine and asked, "And now that she's gone?"

"Venom's offensive movement has come to a complete halt. They think Corneria successfully destroyed their leader."

McCloud turned to face Wolf and asked, "And if my wife, Krystal, were to make a plea for peace before we left, do you think it would help? I mean, if Krystal is really the doppelganger of this… _Kursed_ woman, then that should help smooth tensions between the two planets, right?"

"You're stupid, McCloud." Wolf sneered, approaching the bars. "If what you're telling me is true and that woman _isn't_ the little blue bitch who killed everyone, then having her speak to Venom is the _worst_ thing to do. They only know _power_. If they think she's dead, they will _respect_ Corneria's strength. That's why they've backed off as of late. If they think she's still alive, they won't believe in Corneria's power; they'll have _no respect_ for Corneria. Just walk away."

"Fine," said Fox. "Where can I drop you off?"

"Just like that, huh?" Wolf's mechanical eye patch zoomed then un-zoomed, making a soft sound.

"Yeah." Fox shrugged then added, "In our universe, Wolf O'Donnell gave up the patch eye. He gave it to his daughter and got an optical implant that looks rather natural."

"I have a daughter?" Wolf cocked his head slightly. "You mean there's a Wolf O'Donnell out there who is dumb enough to trust a woman and let her close?"

"You've got twins," replied McCloud. "And they're semi-related to _me_, so I'd rather _not_ talk about it. Obviously things happened _differently_ here, so I'd rather just not talk about it; where can I drop you off?" He turned back to face O'Donnell and folded his arms.

"Sargasso."

* * *

_An hour and a half later_…

**The GreatFox Carrier** filled the sector just outside of the decrepit space station. From the bridge, the entire team, save for Lucy, stood in silence with their guest adjacent to the main view screen. He turned to the assembled group and said, "I'm in a hurry; you guys think you can get it right if I let you send me and my ship down there via Instant Transmission?"

Amanda walked to a control panel, sat down at the console then swiveled about to face Wolf. "If you leave without thanking us for saving your sorry butt, I might accidentally beam you into space, fifty yards from your hanger bay."

O'Donnell glared at her for a moment then, in a softer voice, said, "What is it you see in your geeky little husband?"

The pink-skinned frog offered a devious smirk. Krystal could sense the next reply and put her paw over her muzzle, trying not to snicker. Amanda, in a polite tone, said, "If you _absolutely must _know… He's an _amazing_ kisser, Mister O'Donnell." The female frog then added a victorious grin.

Wolf's brows furrowed, scrunching them up with what looked like confusion or just incredible incomprehension. "I am _so_ out of here." He pointed a finger to Krystal and added, "Good luck, _Killer_." Then cut his gaze to Fox and said, "Don't make the same mistake your other half did. You have _no idea_ what this woman is capable of doing when scorned. I'm serious."

"Don't worry, Wolf," Fox retorted in amusement. "I'll keep her placated with foot rubs and snuggles."

The lupine placed his fists on his hips and glowered at McCloud. "Did you _seriously _just say the word 'snuggles' to me?" O'Donnell rolled his singular eye with a dismissive wave. "You're a hopeless freak, pup." He walked off the bridge, escorted by the homemade piloting droid, Bob.

Krystal watched Wolf depart with an amused expression. A moment later, her eyes widened. "Corneria is incoming." She approached the communication's console just as a warning indicator flashed to life. "They're hailing us."

McCloud shrugged. "Put it on screen."

The large flat surface at the front of the bridge glowed for a moment then displayed a picture of the Captain on the other ship. "This is Captain Simon Parker of the Proteus; this sector is supposed to be abandoned – identify yourselves."

Krystal stood up from the control panel and said, "We were just leaving, Captain Parker."

The Rottweiler on the screen blinked at Krystal. He cut his gaze to the left and shouted orders to his crew. "Kursed is alive! Full reverse! Bring us about by forty-five degrees then full ahead, flank speed! Evasive pattern Epsilon; fire all torpedoes – maximum spread!" The visual feed ended abruptly.

Fox's eyes widened. He darted to the empty seat at the helm and immediately switched to manual flight controls. Meanwhile, Amanda leapfrogged into the tactical station chair and slammed her palm on the hull polarization button. Lucy Hare came in from the entrance on the left and her demeanor changed from a leisurely expression to one of business. She hurried over towards the controls without a word.

Slippy pointed to a nearby seat and said to Krystal, "Brace for impact!" He then reached for an elegant mahogany rail bolted firmly to the nearest wall.

* * *


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: _October News: SPY COOPER THIS WHOLE MONTH – sorry, I promised, y'know?  
__Okay, so, I tried to re-read __Reflections of a New Generation__… You know, so I could brush up… boy… what a TRAIN WRECK. There were loopholes, inconsistencies, and I couldn't bring myself to enjoy this story AT ALL. Now, I really love this story because I've put so much of my personal life into it; I don't want it to SUCK.  
__Needless to say, I skimmed through the first 7 chapters… and made some slight repairs to ALL OF THEM… _

_So yeah, I made repairs to the first quarter of the story and __**REPOSTED ALL SEVEN chapters**__ with these modifications (which range anywhere from 'slight' to 'huge new section').  
__I also made some very MINOR repairs to chapter 14. At the very end, I added in a part where Star picks up the staff that belonged to Kursed before he faints. Why? You'll see. I'm about to re-write chapter 8, 9, 10 and 11 – no kidding. I also have a lot of repairs for chapter 12 and a couple of dingers stuck out at me in chapter 13. Good grief. I'll work them out when I return to this story next month. Stuff._

_By the way, my Japanese Ice-Blue DS broke. I'm sad.  
__So, the other day, I replaced it with the new 'October Color' one – red on black. It's hawt. If you don't own a DS Lite, now is the time to buy one. I actually want the Japanese "indigo blue" coloration. It's the same color as the first generation Game Cube… Hell yeah. But whatever, Red on Black is still neat, albeit a little Goth looking. xD  
__Important Author Note extras down at the bottom. P-Sout!_

_

* * *

_

Chapter -25-  
"_A Shot in the Dark_"

**A small black box reverberated **in the cold, damp cell with Cornerian military voices. Bliss O'Donnell lifted her head slowly but struggled to keep it held high. Through the metal bars, she made out the vague silhouette of a man with a stocky stature. Her body, weak from injuries and foreign substances, slumped back and came to rest in the corner of her cell. She could hear the Cornerian chatter over the nearby radio.

"This is Zero-Seven-Zero-November-Victory, returning to the birdfarm, copy?"

Another voice sounded in reply, "I can hardly make out a thing you're saying, aviator! Please repeat your message, Zero-Seven-Zero-NV!"

"I am two minutes to bingo for RTB, I say again, I am two minutes to bingo for RTB, copy?"

The second voice returned to the speaker. "Copy that, Brown Shoe; you are two minutes from Bingo! You are cleared for return. Hey, pilot," said the second voice, trailing off.

"Sir?"

"Get that 'Bitching Betty' out of your ear, aviator. Our computer indicates you are no less than _ten full minutes_ to bingo. You may have a sensor glitch; report it to your Charlie Oscar, upon arrival; Kitty Hawk – over and out."

Bliss' left ear flickered, listening to the squawk box with a sigh. An overpowering voice filled the immediate area. "Rather interesting, isn't it young O'Donnell? We can hear Corneria's military _better_ than they can hear one another. Now, tell me how you thought you were safe in our airspace?"

Bliss lowered her head in silence. Blood matted the fur on the left side of her face from a cut above her left eye. Her head swam from pain but some part of her recognized the voice – she couldn't place it to a face or a name, however.

"My dear girl, I would like to thank you for returning what is rightfully mine." His deep, intelligent voice echoed off the walls. He then continued. "I do hope you're comfortable. Most prisoners are given laser bars but I felt that you should deserve special treatment. Do you know where you are?"

Bliss opened her mouth to speak but her jaw responded with intense pain. In a soft, yet unbroken voice, she replied, "CF-City."

The deeper voice returned with a soft chuckle. "Charlie Foxtrot? My dear, you are not military; there is no use in using military slang. But yes, you're quite correct in your assumption. You've failed your mission and, my dear mercenary, you won't receive pay. But the true question should be, '_How did this happen_?' Am I right, Miss O'Donnell?"

She gave no reply. After a momentary silence, _another_ familiar voice joined in the conversation. "Do forgive me, Bliss, my dear. This was for your own good and, if it makes you feel any better, I allowed you to live because you did your best for me; I appreciate that. You're a hard and dedicated worker. All right, I should level with you…" The second speaker knelt down just outside the cell, to her right. Her head lulled towards him, coming eye to eye with Dash Bowman. He offered her a casual shrug then added, "You're not some cliché insurance policy, my dear. You're a source of information. No, I'm not talking about the sort of information we get after we torture someone… I'm simply curious about the woman you spoke to on Fichina. Do you remember her? Blue fur, pretty middle-aged face and she burned down an entire city dome?"

Bliss nodded as if drunk. "…She tried to …kill Crimson. She is dead."

Dash smiled. "That's the lady. Do you recall her name?"

"…Can't," said Bliss. Drool, mixed with blood, dribbled down the front of her chin. "Familiar – might have seen a picture in a book." She spoke softly, only opening her mouth an inch at a time from the pain.

"Perhaps a family bible? Ah, I doubt it," replied Bowman with a soft chuckle. "Allow me to change the subject for just a moment; I'd like to reintroduce someone to you." He reached through the bar and cupped her muzzle in his palm, careful not to squeeze. He turned her head to the side until her eyes fell upon a stocky pair of pants. He forced her head to lift, nice and slow, until her eyes met the other man's face. Her pupils dilated and a shallow gasp of air echoed off the walls.

Dash drew a syringe from somewhere beyond her view. He eased the metallic tip into her arm and pushed the plunger down. "This shouldn't take long to clear up the tranquilizer we used on you." He pulled the needle back from her arm and placed a plastic cap on the end then tilted his head at her.

Andross Oikonny folded his hands, standing outside of her cell. He then said, "Your mother and father have no clue, so before you offer me some threat-filled banality, I thought I would tell you. I do so dislike vapid banter, where the hero – or in your case, heroine – blathers about how I won't get away with this. My dear, I already have. No one in your family knows you're here with me. So, let us be realists, my dear half-breed."

She shifted her weight in the cell in an attempt to look up at the stocky speaker. "I don't _care_ which side your grandson is on."

Dash stepped besides his grandfather. "Bliss, that's just it!" he exclaimed. "You don't get it, my pretty little vixen. We already _know_ you only care about money. My grandfather and I aren't _necessarily_ on the same side. We're here to use you as a bargaining chip. We'll trade you to your father for the weapon he has hidden on Sargasso. With it, we can hold Corneria _hostage_ against their will."

Bliss blinked with incomprehension. "Weapon?"

Dash blinked in return. "You didn't know? Oh, my poor girl – you're either so very naïve, or you're simply out of the loop! Your father stumbled across something rather precious. He's hidden it away in the hold then denied its existence. It's a special element necessary to create the nuclear chain reaction that not only caused the bomb on Corneria several days ago… but it's also used to trigger the chain reaction in the only remaining Gravity Bomb. Only a nuclear detonation inside the bomb can create the energy necessary to stimulate another gravity bomb to life. No one in Lylat has uranium. Oh, I suppose it naturally occurs on various planets throughout the system but it's rare. Mister O'Donnell accidentally acquired a shipment that could last forever. We require it for my grandfather to rebuild another bomb like the one he used about six and a half years ago. Your father and mother will buy you back at any amount."

In a weak voice, she told Dash, "You're scum. Our business contract is terminated."

Dash smirked at her reply and said, "Pay attention." He took a pen from his pocket and reached through the bars. He wrote, '_238U (n, gamma) into 239U –(beta) into 239Np – (beta) into 239Pu_.' He then looked up at her and smiled. He withdrew the pen and stood up, glaring down at her. "We're doing your father a favor, Miss O'Donnell. To his knowledge, he's sitting on a great deal of metal. What he doesn't know is that it's radioactive. You wouldn't want your father to die of cancer, now would you? Of course not!"

She glared at the crude scrapings on the concrete floor. She reached her paws to her eyes and rubbed them for a moment, sobering up from the serum. She looked back down at the markings. "So by bombarding this metal with neutrons, it produces an emission of beta particle rays, which becomes…" She struggled with the next step.

"It's called _Neptunium 239_; you're bright but you're no scientist, Bliss."

She stole another glance at the ape, looked back to the writing on the floor then said, "And instead of irradiating it with neutrons to make 238 Plutonium, an isotope for building _spacecraft_, you go back to the… Beta Rays stage and get Plutonium 239, which… does what?"

Bowman looked radiant. "…Makes _fissionable_ Plutonium. Again, my dear; you're brilliant – more so than I gave you credit for… but you're no scientist. Let's skip to the sphere of plutonium. We then build it into a block and surround it with neutron-reflective 'tungsten carbide' until the mass goes supercritical. Are you following? There is an increasing rate of fission until natural feedback mechanisms cause the reactor to settle into equilibrium, which is the state of being critical, at an elevated temperature or otherwise elevated power level… There it is: It settles into a state of being critical… Or destroys itself, because disassembly of the core is an equilibrium state. For this reason, we keep the core subcritical until we are ready to…"

"You're sick!" Bliss turned her face away. "You're using a dangerous, artificially-made radioactive metal to create an _explosion_ that will vaporize living tissue? That's what high levels of radiation does… it vaporizes organic tissue! Is that your grand scheme? You vaporize people at the center of the blast, melt anything left at the edge of the blast and then radiate any survivors with the leftovers; is that it?"

"Absolutely wonderful!" cried Dash. "You're beautiful _and_ intelligent! But no, we don't create an explosion at _all_. We use a shaped charge around the block of Plutonium, which forces the metal object to increase in density thereby producing a rather prompt critical configuration."

Bliss turned back to him and furrowed her brows. "And that does what?" She reached a paw to her jaw, determining the extent of her injuries. Aside from a few cuts and bruises, she felt fairly whole.

"Grand scale _implosion_. You put a neutron initiator at the center of the subcritical plutonium globe. The spherical shockwave crushes the round polished mass on all sides, evenly, and creates the biggest _boom_ you could ever imagine. One entire city would vanish to rubble in the blink of an eye. It creates a flash so bright it would vaporize organic tissue. Anything a mile out would leave a permanent shadow on a sidewalk to indicate where an organic object disintegrated during the flash reaction. We'll call this a 'fission' bomb.

"Then if you add stages with isotopes of hydrogen, you get a _fusion_ bomb, which greatly intensifies the thermonuclear _boom_. Take the bomb we used over Corneria's Capital City and imagine if the blast radius was three times larger… or better yet, maybe _five_ times larger. You see, fusion releases more energy per kilogram – and the energy of this magnitude, released in this method, is almost inconceivable. Just imagine, Bliss, a radioactive fireball that would take out all the suburban sectors just outside of the city… thirty to fifty miles in every direction from ground zero. What an incredible invention, don't you think? One wouldn't even need to utilize it to have power over others… they only need to threaten using it."

Bliss looked up at him again. She couldn't open her jaw enough to gawk but her lips parted and her eyes widened just the same. Dash continued. "Then you have the cobalt bomb for increased fallout. You can change up the formula and make the neutron bomb for enhanced radiation effects; that way you can make your enemy suffer more _or_ you could just vaporize the whole lot of them, wait a few decades and move into the empty city. It all depends on how you wanted to do it."

"Stop," muttered the hybrid vixen. "How can _anyone_ turn a natural element into such a horrible creation? You're truly twisted to have invented this."

"Hardly," replied Bowman. "It was created by Cornerians who were astonished to learn that Plutonium blocks, at room temperature, could boil water in a tub at equally room temperature. A simple block of metal that could command so much energy was bound to turn into a weapon. No, Bliss O'Donnell, they discovered this long before they ever sought to explore the rest of Lylat.

"Once their focus returned to the intrinsic desire to learn and explore, they realized that life was also occurring on neighboring planets. They used their weapon to defend themselves out of paranoia and with startling success against the neighboring worlds. Finally, these ancestors realized they could make crude ways to contain and distribute this energy as a power source. It created dangerous byproducts and one day, someone had the idea to mine the planet of _all_ Uranium. They rid themselves of it. They abolished the mathematical data and forced the theories to die out. Many generations later, it was fully forgotten. Venom's ancestors did _not_ forget, however; the planetary archives explained the theory in startling detail. Venom remembered. They were happy to return the favor dealt to their ancestors. How ironic… using such a weapon on the descendants of the creators…"

"Thousands are dead," Bliss muttered. "I protected you; were you in on this the whole time?"

"I wanted to see its effects on the capital, first hand! Now, this is where I give you a choice… you and your Cornerian lover may join my ranks… or I'll let you watch the destruction of Corneria then kill your mate, followed by you. What is your decision?"

Bliss grew quiet for a moment then sat up tall in her small cell. She cocked a single eyebrow at him and, in a defiant voice, asked, "Did your mother not hug you enough when you were little?"

Andross Oikonny's image flickered then faded from the room, leaving her to wonder if he was a simple hologram. She turned back to Dash and said, "My father said he's a lousy employer, so what're _you_ doing here? Are you doing this because he's a blood relative?"

Bowman snorted in disdain. "Hardly… No one is sure if he's still really alive and Andrew doesn't have what it takes to become the next emperor. I've been using a holographic artificial intelligence program to scare the masses into thinking he's still around to keep Venom from falling into line behind Andrew. If he is still alive, no one knows where he is or how much time he has left. He disappeared after attacking StarFox, six years ago."

"Why tell me your secret, Dash? You played your trump card _way _too early." Bliss folded her arms across her chest. "Aside from your threats, how is this lucrative to _me_ and, if I may be so bold, _how_ is this lucrative to _you_?"

"It's lucrative to you," said Dash. "You and your _girlfriend_ get to live and we buy your father's shipment using _your_ help. Then you inherit that shipment and the power that comes with it. I'm extending trust to you – if you reciprocate it, I'll make you the queen of Venom, in a sense. I also heard that you helped the woman who attacked Fichina _and_ I understand your girl, Carey Granton, has a PhD in Theoretical Physics. I also heard she is working on a second one in Quantum Mechanics."

Bliss pointed at the locked gate. "I want out. Now. And yes, Carey is a smart lil' thing. _Maybe_ I can help you, after all. But I have _one_ condition."

Dash smirked at her. He approached the gate on the opposite side. "Only one condition? You're an easy girl to please."

"I have other conditions but _this_ one is the deal breaker; if you don't adhere to it then there is no reason to let me out."

Bowman nodded. "Go on."

She narrowed her gaze in an attempt to put on a tough act regardless of the pain in her jaw. "You cannot drop anymore of those weapons over Corneria airspace. This includes Katina. Use it as a threat; make strikes on dirty planets like Macbeth, but no more direct attacks against home. Do we have an _accord_?"

"You pirates and your silly verbiage," replied Bowman. He unlocked the gate with a metal key and said, "You said it best, Bliss. If I refuse your condition, I shouldn't let you out. Here I am, letting you out; I expect you to play nice."

"There _are_ rules," she told him. "Our names do not come up in the Venom Press; I'm protective of Carey. You play your little game with my father and I'll look at it as a business deal. But I don't like the idea of telling them I've been captured. They would think less of me for letting myself get caught. If you wanna play a game of subterfuge, fine. We can convince him that this stuff is dangerous to his health by having Carey visit the station; she'll analyze it – verifying it's legit for you and proving it's dangerous to his business. When he disposes of the metal in his hold, you can go and collect it – I actually prefer the latter plan over the former."

Dash grew quiet for a moment, pondered her idea then nodded. "We'll try it your way, first. I'm doing this to earn _your_ trust, my dear girl. Now you know that I'm not working with my grandfather and you're not going to rat me out to your father. I've not backstabbed you, Bliss; I simply had to test your mettle. Contact Miss Granton and have her meet us."

"One more small condition," said the half-breed vixen with a weak smirk. She approached the gate, pushing it open. "Don't call me 'dear' anymore. It's nauseating."

* * *

**Fara leaned back in the cushioned seat**. She gazed at Marcus, across from her, in the tiny round cabin of the drop pod. The small lifeboat resembled a heavily modified escape pod from a typical Phoenix Star-liner mega yacht. She offered him a reassuring smile but said nothing. The ovular vessel grunted and the ambient noise of its hover pads fell silent. A round table separated the two foxes; she opened the mahogany lid and drew out four round objects. A dent in the fourth one caught McCloud's eye and he leaned forward to look which amused Fara to no end. 

She handed him the fourth spherical object and said, "I caused that dent the day we met." She paused, gave him a minute to look it over then, in silence, thought, '_They're the four holo-emitter orbs Andrew Oikonny used to attack me on the flight deck._' She watched Marcus' facial expression then smiled at his look of comprehension. "I'm leaving them with you and I want you to stay here. If I get into trouble, you fall back and use the radio controller that Theodore made… and you use the VR goggles… You'll finish the mission using this, that way the team still has its leader."

"Wait, I'm staying here?"

Fara lifted a manicured finger to stop his protest before it could start. "Not the entire time. I'm going to clear out the immediate enemy cover then I want you to help me scout a way to destroy this bio weapon. After that, we wait for the support team; they'll send us the gear we need via instant transmission should we need it."

"I don't like that you're going by yourself. If someone sneaks up behind you, I would be able to sense his or her presence. You need me."

She reached her paw to McCloud's muzzle and smiled. "You'll be fine. You'll sense if I'm in trouble and I'll clear my mind so you can know what's happening. Just, do yourself a favor…"

He tilted his head, which caused her to grin again. Fara dropped her paw into her lap and told him, "I don't know how powerful your abilities are when I don't try to keep up a mental block… If you somehow have the ability to see what I see through my mind or something… _don't_. I was trained to do what I'm about to do and that's part of the reason I want you to stay back until I call for you."

"Fara, you're one person – Crimson told me what kind of opposition you came up against last time. This is suicide."

She shushed him with a finger against his lips. "Remember what I said on the bridge? They asked me what I did for a living and I said I survive suicide missions. It's only suicide if you _do not_ survive. An inexperienced person would not survive this. I want you to stay armed and when I call for you, I want you to hurry. In the event that I'm killed, you'll use the holographic combat fighter… go in there… and destroy the target. Do _not_ come out of this ship until I send for you; understand me? If I have to rescue you, my chances of survival drop. I operate on percentage rate. This mission is a twenty-seven percent success ratio. I only accept jobs that have a rating of twenty-five or higher. Keep your mind relaxed and focused but don't go trying to see what I see, all right?"

"I can't see through your eyes or anything like that…" Marcus fidgeted with the deactivated holographic orbs then glanced back at her. "If you dwell on the image of your attacks, I'll see those but they're grainy. Also, you have to be close and you can't have your mental defenses up. I once held a pendant belonging to my mother and, briefly, saw things through her eyes from _years_ ago… but that's different than what you're thinking of."

"How can you be so effective against the enemy, then?"

Marcus grinned and placed the metal orbs on the seat cushion to his left; the circular sofa bench lined the interior of the small pod. He shrugged then told her, "I prey on the weak-minded and the weak willed. I sense thought patterns and orders given to the pawns of the other team."

Fara reopened the table and pulled out two rapid pulse blaster rifles and a silver duster. The sparkly fabric created an optical illusion of depth perception to McCloud. He reached forward and touched the blurry looking sparkle-covered fabric in her paws then blinked.

The fennec grinned then told him, "They're dual layer holographic emitters overtop of very small mirrors." She unfolded the trench coat and turned it around. The interior lining had a smooth gray quality to it but, as she turned it about, the exterior layer faded from existence. She watched his expression of curiosity then announced, "I _sense_ that you're impressed."

Marcus replied with an amused smile. "I _sense_ you're pretty good at reading my facial expressions." He scooted around the circular cushioned bench then placed his paws on either side of Fara's muzzle, bringing her gaze to meet his own mismatched hues of blue and green. McCloud paused for a moment then said, "I'm really starting to have complicated feelings for you, so don't go dying again, all right? I know you can separate your emotions from your work ethic but it doesn't mean I have that ability, too."

Fara drew her lower lip between her teeth. "It's true I can detach myself emotionally, but it's not how you think. If I'm in the field and take the life of an enemy, I understand that it's associated with self defense, in a way. I do this so I retain my humane side. I fight with logic and reason but I still love with passion and desire; I am a woman – I judge with compassion and empathy. I watched the video of you kneeling over Jane's bed and listened to the dialogue on the security tapes. I felt for you both and _that_ is why I took her to Eladard."

"Isn't it ironic?" he asked then added, "There are so many coincidences… If you weren't nearly killed and put into stasis we wouldn't have met you. If we didn't meet you, we wouldn't have been on Corneria during the attack – we'd have been on Katina, still dreaming, unsure of what to do with that reward money. If we didn't find Jane or take her back to GreatFox, you wouldn't have taken her to Eladard…"

Fara nodded and finished his statement. "If I was never shot down and put in stasis, I wouldn't have known to take her to Eladard, and if I never took her there, we wouldn't have learned about this Bio Weapon in time to stop it. We may be creatures of Freewill, Marcus, but the Goddess sometimes guides the right people to the right places at the right time, because the right person can make all the difference."

McCloud lowered his eyes and considered her words; he struggled with an emotional inner argument in regards to fate and freewill not too long ago. She worded everything with such elegance that everything suddenly made sense. "I didn't know you were so religious," Marcus said. He released her muzzle from his palms and offered her a soft smile. "I guess that explains the phrase, '_wrong place at the wrong time_'. I suppose I never thought of it that way."

Phoenix took his right paw into her left and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We _can't_ _always_ be part of the bigger plan if we don't pay attention… but that's all part of the whole 'Freewill' thing." She leaned forward, brushed her lips gently against his and told him, "I'll leave it to you to figure out if that kiss was fate or freewill." She offered another soft smile then raised her arms, pushing the top off the pod. She peered out into the evening air and listened with her sharp ears. "Good, we still have our stealth element. Listen," she said, glancing back down at him. "Theodore is on the bridge. We cannot utilize ship-to-shore communications because audio signals will alert the enemy, no matter how we try to encrypt it. If they detect chatter, we're busted."

"What's the plan?"

Fara sat back down in the pod and pulled the duster over her left arm. "Data streams cover Eladard so they're virtually impossible to track. We're going to use GreatFox as a satellite. You'll see everything from above and relay the information to me directly, using ground-to-ground encoded audio. They can't zero in on personal communicators if both are transmitting and receiving in such proximity of one another. So _you_ will relay satellite images to me – do not contact GreatFox directly." She pulled the right sleeve over her other arm, fixed the lay of the fabric on her body then opened the coat wide. The fennec took a moment to secure her blaster rifles to the coat's liner. She opened the table one last time and pulled out two rapid-fire handguns. "This is it. Under the table lid, you'll find the VR goggles. They're partitioned so that the left side of the screen shows the satellite feed from GreatFox. The right side will show a visual when fighting with the holo-emitters. Don't use them unless there is an emergency. Your visor has a communicator, too. Everything you say transmits to me. Don't turn your visor on until I'm outside of the pod – the feedback would be awful."

She drew in a deep breath to calm herself then stood up again. She secured the blasters to a set of holsters at her ribcage. The sandy-furred fennec reached into her pocket and withdrew a set of sunshades. "These are the most expensive things I own," she said in a soft voice. The vixen placed them on her muzzle then, with a single finger, guided them up to her eyes. She offered a toothy grin and said, "Believe it or not, I see everything with color enhancement – not your typical shades. All right, I've been chatty enough." She pulled herself up through the opening and clamored to the top. She replaced the lid then slid down the hull's glassy, clear surface. The vixen eased herself down to the edge of the camouflaged metal; she swung her legs out then dropped three feet to the ground.

Fara glanced over her shoulder at the nearly invisible pod then drew both handguns. Two green reticules appeared in the visor-like image of her glasses, allowing her to see where the barrels pointed. She carefully twirled each one, watching as the two green boxes went from the bottom of the visor to the top only to repeat. She crossed each weapon from left to right then back. She replaced them into her holsters then performed a similar vertical and horizontal testing method for her rifles.

After a moment, a text-based message appeared in the goggles. "_Sights for four weapons – confirmed and calibrated."_ The serial number of both handguns and both rifles scrolled before her eyes. She replaced the rifles in her duster then stretched. Fara brought her paws to one another, rubbed them together in anticipation then broke into a sprint.

* * *

**Krystal McCloud's eyes widened; **the sudden realization of her sixth sense startled her. "Fox, there are more Cornerian ships inbound! Get us out of here!" The Proteus' five large torpedoes narrowly missed the Carrier. Two of them exploded off the port bow, which caused the lights to flicker. A pair of proton beams fired from GreatFox. The energy attack struck the last three torpedoes, vaporizing them prior to detonation. 

Lucy Hare, at the helm, shouted, "I'm on it. I'll try to out run them!" She took manual control of the ship and brought the engines up to maximum speed. She then added, "Nice shooting, Amanda!"

Fox crossed the bridge to the communication's panel and opened a hailing channel to the attacking ship, as well as all inbound ships in the area. "This is Fox McCloud of the StarFox Mercenary flight squadron. We request you to break your attack so we can talk this over, peacefully! Please comply!" He had little hope for diplomacy but wanted to buy as much time as possible.

The channel opened and Fox's eyes widened. Bill Grey stood on a platform at the center of the flagship's command deck. McCloud froze, gazing up at the main view screen. "Bill!"

"…Fox?" The Cornerian General blinked twice. "You're dead… I was at your… – it was an open casket funeral. What the hell is going on here?"

McCloud backed up to the captain's chair and dropped into it. "Bill, I need your help. I'm trying to get home and everything is complicated right now. Can you call off this attack?"

"Dude! You're _with_ her? Are you in on it together? Did you two _fake_ your murder?" He turned his head, glaring over at the image of Krystal on Fox's right. "You may have let him live, but I've seen the countless atrocities you've caused, woman. Using the spell stones of Sauria to destroy Fichina? That was _insane_; you _knew_ it would destroy Sauria, too. You've destroyed _two_ planets and murdered hundreds of thousands in the process!" The canine turned back to the left, facing Fox directly. "I will _not_ call off this attack. I don't know how she avoided our gravity bomb before, but this is war and anyone harboring her is an enemy of the state!"

"Bill, we grew up together," Fox exclaimed. "Remember the time we…"

"Stop!" shouted Bill. "That's it, Fox. Our friendship is over – you two are in cahoots? I remember back in the academy, when you _first_ mentioned dreaming about the 'girl in blue'. Her fate ends _here_. I'll mourn you, Fox McCloud but there's nothing I can do… you're harboring a deadly fugitive."

"Bill," cried Krystal. "Please, he's telling the truth when he says we just want to go home. Things got complicated and I'm not who you think I am! I'm not the woman who attacked Lylat – we only wish to leave in peace! Please!"

"I wish I could believe you," said the General in a stoic voice. "But you used the same tone and pleading eyes with me the evening before you destroyed Fichina. I'll not fall for it again. It's over – your rampage is at an end." He turned to the left and shouted, "Prepare the device!" The channel closed – the view screen faded to black.

Krystal swallowed, sensing the canine's intentions. In a soft, broken voice, she muttered, "Hurry, we need… to hurry." Her lower lip quivered and her eyes widened. "Haste would be best…"

"We've come too far to give up now," growled Fox. "Slippy, polarize the hull plating and raise the shields. Lucy, evasive maneuvers – get us the hell out of here. Let's make a break for the nearest orbital jump-gate."

"I'm locking in a course," replied Lucy. "We're surrounded on all sides, above and below. They're closing in quick and we may have to defend ourselves, Fox."

Slippy sat down next to Amanda at the tactical station. "The Flagship is closing in, Fox. It's really freakin' big, too! Wait, hold up!" He punched several keys to augment the sensor screen then said, "The Cornerian fleet is generating some sort of energy field – each ship is linking to the next to… Oh my goodness."

Amanda leaned over to look at her husband's display then turned back to Fox and Krystal. "They're forming a force field to block our escape!"

"Can we break through it?" exclaimed Fox.

"No, I've never seen technology like this," she replied. "We're cut off from the rest of the sector and separated from Sargasso. We might be able to make a hyperspace jump but it's risky, depending on the energy output of their field. This is strange; it looks like they're using Negative Energy – I thought that stuff was just a theory?"

McCloud turned to Lucy and said, "Jump to hyper; I don't care where, just GO!"

Krystal sprinted to the nearest control panel and shouted, "It's too late!" She pressed several keys, bringing up a visual of the Flagship. Large bay doors opened on the front and an enormous missile erupted from its hull. Krystal covered her muzzle with her left paw. "I sense…"

"W-what is it?" Slippy squeaked in worry.

"I sense… it's the same thing Andross used on _us_, six years ago. I don't know if we can handle it again."

Their homemade piloting droid entered the bridge and looked around the room. Having heard Krystal's last statement upon entry, he simply said, "According to archival access records, hull integrity cannot handle another gravimetric stress factor equal to, or in excess of, the original detonation used six years ago. If hull stress integrity is compromised with the same factor as before, our success ratio is approximately fifteen percent."

"Do we have time to launch fighters?" asked Fox.

Lucy looked over her shoulder with sad eyes. "Detonation in approximately seventeen seconds, Fox – maybe less; I can't get a proper lock on the chrono-regulator mechanism. There's no time to shoot it down with our fighters." All eyes returned to the view screen.

Fox licked his lips apprehensively then said, "Full speed towards the missile – Lucy, lay in coordinates to jump to hyperspace; Slippy, open fire on the missile."

Everyone turned back to their station but before any of them could carry out their orders, the gravity bomb imploded with incredible power. The tear in space opened up inside the energy sphere, contained within of the dark-energy field, which successfully contained the gravity anomaly hole. It swallowed the GreatFox carrier and all hands onboard.

* * *

**"Sir! General Grey, Sir! Long-range sensors indicate a gravitational fluctuation** identical to the one that we recorded six years ago! It's at the edge of the Sargasso sector!" 

Bill Grey looked up from his rationed dinner, sitting on the floor of the bunker. "Are there any ships in that area?" asked the General. He passed his plate to a small child with hungry eyes who sat nearby then walked across the bunker to the Lieutenant.

"The Proteus, General."

"…That's Parker's ship," said Bill to himself. He cleared his throat and said, "Get a visual feed from them – Andross could be attacking someone with that super weapon, again."

He followed the Lieutenant to the bunker entrance. The two large bay doors opened by hydraulic force. Once through them, they resealed with a metallic thud. The two officers raced down the hallway to the elevator. The cheetah arrived there first and hit the call button. Bill arrived at the elevator doors just as they swished open. Both boarded the box and the doors shut behind them. It lifted the General up to the command center, which remained locked down to everyone except a few volunteers.

The elevator arrived at the far end of the command deck. Several men looked sick with sunken eyes and missing patches of fur. They all turned to salute General Grey when the elevator doors reopened. He stepped off the platform and gazed about the room with a frown. "Every one of you men will receive a medal for volunteering your services and manning your post in face of this radiation." He then approached the main view screen and said, "Bring up a visual feed from the Proteus."

Captain Parker's image filled the left portion of the screen; space filled the right with a small gray object at the center. Bill cleared his throat again and said, "Simon, what's going on out there?"

Captain Parker said, "General Grey! We've just identified the target, Sir. You'll never believe it – it's best to show you, General!" The partition on the right augmented to a magnification factor of _ten_. A likeness of the GreatFox Carrier rendered on the screen. Nearly every man in the room gasped, including Bill Grey. The Captain of the Proteus folded his arms and said, "We're having trouble using scanners to check for any signs of life, General. There's a radiation swell in the Sargasso sector that is causing a sensor ghost… we're moving into position. So far, it appears that their hull and running lights are lit, save for two flood lamps located on the keel; their engines are offline, their shields have collapsed but their hull is polarized. We have reason to hope for the best, General."

Bill offered a nervous, frustrated sigh. "My flagship is in no condition to leave Cornerian orbit, Simon. Don't board that ship without making contact first. Just in case; we have to play it by the book. Law states we cannot board a friendly vessel without their consent – can we tell if their air supply is good or if they're in standard de-toxicity status? Listen, I don't care if you have to fly a man out there in a space suit with a flashlight to make signals in their window… I want you to ascertain if there are any survivors and report back to me _immediately_."

"Understood, General. As of right now, she's a sitting duck. Her weapons are offline, her main power grid is down – they're running on fusion backup power."

Grey threw his paws up into the air and exclaimed, "You can tell all of that, but you can't see if there are any bio organic signs? What the hell is going on, Simon? I need to know if those pilots are alive!"

"Sir, I understand he's a friend of yours, but we're doing the best we can."

Bill slumped into a nearby chair and sighed. "You're right and I'm sorry. I'm just… I don't know if I can handle any more bad news right now. I want this to be _good_ news and I'm a little on edge. Have you hailed them?"

"Aye, Sir. We've had no replies. I'm not sure they're able to receive it, General Grey. Their communications network interface is transmitting on _all_ channels with heavy static."

He glanced to the left, consorting with one of his officers then turned back towards the camera and said, "General, we can confirm that there are five individual organic bodies on the ship but because of the interference from Sargasso, we're still getting scrambled data glitches showing up in the detailed reports. All five persons are in a state of motionlessness – we can't tell if they're unconscious or dead, Sir."

"Dammit," muttered Bill. He ran his fingers over his forehead, down over his eyes and to the tip of his nose. "Simon, I want you to tractor that ship back towards Katina but release it at the edge of the sector. It's the closest and safest place, right now. Are the escape pods intact?"

"All of them are accounted for," replied the Captain of the Proteus. "I've never tried to tractor a ship as big as my own, General. We'll do our best to transport the GreatFox back towards Katina but it will take some time, Sir. I'll report to you as soon as _anything_ changes."

"You do that," said Bill. "Thanks… and take good care of them, Simon. That's no ordinary friend on that ship… That's Fox McCloud. His little boy is going to want to hear that his parents are alive."

"Sir? I heard he vanished with the rest of the crew."

Bill stood up and smirked. "You heard wrong, Parker. The official report omitted Star McCloud's survival because he was afraid Andross would come after him. You know those News reports about the new StarFox holding the Venom front line? Fox McCloud's _son_ is the one in charge. Don't worry, it's no longer classified information… reports are starting to leak out that he's alive after taking that first mission on Sauria. As far as the GreatFox carrier's return, I don't want _anyone_ talking to the Press until we find out their status and until I can _personally_ talk to the new StarFox team. Nothing goes public without my permission, understand?"

"Now that you mention it, I recall reading he had something to do with stopping that woman who attacked Fichina. I thought those were rumors, Sir?"

Bill offered a firm nod. "They _are_ rumors… but they're also _true_ rumors. I allowed his name to go public one time, just to put a little fear into Venom… I want them to sweat. Again, _nothing_ goes public without my permission, Captain."

Simon Parker saluted. "Aye, Sir! We'll be in contact shortly. Parker – out."

Bill gazed at the logo for the Proteus, which filled the view screen for several seconds. The large monitor darkened, replaced by overhead satellite feed of Corneria's Capital City. He turned back to the Lieutenant, who looked healthier than most of the men in the room. Bill walked to the back of the command center, glanced over his shoulder and addressed those assembled. "Everyone report to medical. Set the computers to autonomous and get yourselves out of this radiation. We'll route the main controls to the bunker. Lieutenant," he turned to the nearby cheetah. "Head downstairs and keep an eye out for Captain Parker's next communiqué from the safety of the Bunker. I'm going to get a crew together and head up to the Flagship, sitting in orbit. I'm going to Katina. You all have your orders. I need brave men to stay alive. Sitting at your post until you die doesn't help me save Corneria. Everyone – head to medical, on the double." The room cleared out. Bill waited until everyone was gone, looking at the left-half of the view screen.

He gazed upon the motionless image of the GreatFox carrier, lost over six years ago. He studied it for a moment then reached his paws to either side of his head and rubbed his temples. The canine licked his lips then whispered, "If _anyone_ could find out what's going on, Star can do it… he's telepathic, after all." Bill walked over to a communication's terminal and opened a channel to the GreatFox II dreadnaught cruiser, in orbit above Eladard. Crimson O'Donnell answered the hail. Grey balled up his fists but kept his composure. "O'Donnell… Where is Star McCloud?"

Crimson frowned. "_Marcus_ is on a mission, General. He asked me not to say anything until the job is finished. …He didn't want to worry you."

"Right, _Marcus_ McCloud…" Bill furrowed his brows in curiosity and incomprehension. "What's going on?"

"Sir," Crimson said with a sigh. The younger pilot ran his fingers up through the fiery locks of headfur above his eyes. "I'm sure they're close to wrapping it up so there's no reason to get excited… but – we found a bio weapon on Eladard. Venom has control of the University and they're building it on campus. Fara and Marcus are live on the scene. Don't send any ships; fleet movements would tip them off and that would be bad… Sir."

Bill closed his paws into fists, reopened them then tightened his fingers into fists again. "I never liked you because of your father but I'm going to do my best to remain neutral. Listen, I need to speak to Marcus. How do I get a hold of him?"

"He cut all communication ties. Falco and Fara feel that it would alert the local Venom forces to their location. They said we can't risk it." O'Donnell glanced over his shoulder at Vivian Hare then turned back to the screen and said, "I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt, General. StarFox will be returning to the front line, as soon as we're finished here, Sir."

"Something has come up," Grey told him. "The GreatFox Carrier has just appeared, adrift but with backup power, at the edge of the Sargasso sector. They're not responding yet and it doesn't appear that they're functioning beyond running lights and life support. I want you guys to finish your mission then pull back to Katina. I'm having their ship towed there as soon as possible. I refuse to board the ship, just in case this is some sort of trap set by Andross. For all we know, it could be a massive bomb. I'm not even allowing it to be put into Katina's orbit… I'm having it towed to the very edge of the sector, where it would be harmless… The thing is, I need McCloud's telepathic powers. I want him to use his abilities to check for hostile intent. Right now, the Proteus could be in danger from proximity to that ship… As soon as McCloud gets back, I want you guys over Katina, _double time_."

Vivian and Theodore leaned over Crimson's shoulders, listening intently. The rabbit placed a paw on O'Donnell's right shoulder, looking at the General with moist eyes. "You can't even tell if anyone is alive by doing a sensor sweep?"

"Some sort of anomaly in the Sargasso region has caused intense interference. We can see that there are five individual bodies but we can't tell if anyone is alive."

Vivian backed away from the communications terminal; Crimson and Theodore moved away and Falco Lombardi sat down in front of the camera. "Hey, Bill – I'm sure you've read the kiddo's report that I've returned to the system by now... How's it going? So you have confirmation that there are five persons onboard and that the ship's life support is running, but you can't tell if they're dead or not?"

Grey nodded in reply to reading McCloud's report then frowned. "We can't tell if they're _alive_, Falco… I'm sorry; there is an intense concentration of radiation playing havoc with our sensors. We're not even sure if it's coming from the carrier, so we're treating it accordingly. I'm half convinced that ship could be a Trojan Horse… How is your family?"

Lombardi offered a thin smile. "Everyone made it off of Corneria. They're safe in hiding. Listen… six years ago, when we were first hit with Andross' bomb, we were unconscious for an hour in the cockpit of our Arwings. The gravity shock blew out every fighter's G-Diffuser but I'll tell you right now, if we didn't have them, we wouldn't have survived. The thing is, there isn't a gravity diffusing device for a ship of that size. They could be seriously injured or worse. I'm going to fly out there and meet you guys at Katina. I want to board the ship and check on them."

"I can't allow that," Bill said with a frustrated sigh of defeat. "Our preliminary scans show such intense radioactive readings in the area that it could be dangerous for one… Two, there's a good chance this radiation is coming _from_ the GreatFox carrier. As I said, it could be another huge bomb from Venom, designed to look like the GreatFox. After the recent attack on Corneria, we cannot second-guess. We _need_ Marcus McCloud out here. He's telepathic and, as far as I'm concerned, he's the only one who can check the crew to ensure that it's reasonably safe. If we board that ship and it explodes, it could be devastating."

Lombardi glared at the General for a moment. "Always doing things by the book, Grey."

"I haven't come this far by living dangerously, Falco. Normally, I wouldn't even allow the ship to be brought on this side of the asteroid belt, but I'm biased. I have a friend who could be on that ship, and if he's alive, I want him to receive the best medical attention available, as quickly as possible. However, I will not tow that ship any closer without Marcus there to use his abilities. Have him hurry."

"We'll contact you shortly," said the avian. Falco closed the channel.

* * *

A/N: _Two things: One, I'm taking a VERY SHORT HIATUS from this story to keep a promise: I'm going to work on SPY COOPER this month because I SWORE I would. So, for my Spy Cooper / Sly Cooper fans, I'm getting on that right away. Now, one more thing…_

_I have a __**NEW Reflections of Krystal**__ story idea… 8-11 chapters. It basically details the time leading up to StarFox: Command. It will start with Fox and Krystal romantically engaged and will explain a tense mission between the two, which I mention in chapter SEVEN while Star McCloud is in his parents room. It will be in depth about Fox pushing Krystal away out of worry for her safety… It will detail the shame she feels and confusion she feels, unable to correctly read Fox's thoughts, because they're both very emotional at the time. It will then follow Krystal leaving Fox and joining the Flight Academy on Corneria… then flying with Bill, dating Panther, living with StarWolf with holding a full time job on Corneria… then resigning… the Anglar attack… and, ultimately, fighting her feelings over Fox… leaving Panther and returning to the GreatFox. She'll run back to Panther after a few short months (First possible ending in SF:C)… but when she gets back, it won't feel like it did with Fox… she'll give Panther the closure she feels that he deserves, basically kiss his forehead and tell him __**not**__ to wait for her anymore. _

_Then she'll show up in Fox's quarters one day… they'll be married, I'll detail her pregnancy and all the visions she'll have from the oracle… etc._

_**IF YOU WANT TO READ SUCH A STORY, LET ME KNOW**_

_If I get enough people to ask for it, I'll do it on the side. Rawr!_

_I will add up all the replies I get via feedback and the replies I get on my FanFiction Forum POLL. I've not yet decided on a name for this story yet but I will figure out all the logistics later. I'll start on it sometime this year if I get enough people telling me they want to read it. _

_**Please let me know!**_

_-Kit_

_PS: does everyone like the suspense? Lol _


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter -**_Twenty-Six_**-

**The lizard, pinned down behind the remains of a shattered statue's pedestal**, shouted to Marcus and Fara before firing off two more random shots. "You'll both kneel before the might of the _new_ Venom government when we overrun this system! You will learn to respect our superiority!"

Fara peered around the corner and fired another shot to keep the enemy pinned down. "A government only exists with the consent of the governed. That's how Corneria works and you will learn to respect our freedom and our will!" She squeezed the trigger again then muttered, "That sounded hokey didn't it?"

"I don't think he cares anyhow," Marcus murmured. "So, yeah... I'm sorry I didn't listen – you're only pinned down because of _me_."

The lizard fired two more shots in return. "I will cut your throat, Cornerian vixen!" shouted the reptile in reply. He ducked back behind the concrete block in frustration.

Marcus ran his right paw through the tousled vanilla tuft of headfur between his ears. "But I sensed something strange… I can't explain it but I think there might be some sort of emergency."

Phoenix drew out a makeup compact and used the mirror to peer around the corner. She watched to ensure that the enemy wasn't trying to move up. "Do you think Venom used another bomb on a nearby planet like the last one?"

"No, it's not that… that felt more emotional when it was happening. This is different but I can't explain it. The thing is, I have this strange feeling like there's a huge uproar going on all around us. It somehow involves the forces here. They suddenly know something we don't."

A gunshot struck the mirror. It burst in Fara's paw – she tossed the remains to the ground. The fennec reached around the corner and fired off two more shots to keep the enemy pinned down. McCloud gasped and shouted, "From the right!" No sooner did he call out, two lizards attempted to flank them by running up the opposite end of the alley.

Phoenix shoved the fox against the wall then brought the handle of her blaster into the first lizard's snout. She gracefully extended her leg, connecting with the other reptile's face. He spun on his heel and collided with his partner. She jerked her knee up, smashing the second lizard in the face then aimed the blaster, open firing on the other. She reached for the dazed second lizard and, quickly, snapped his neck. She saw Marcus, out of the corner of her eye, flinching from the sound of a snapping spine.

"I'm sorry – it's my training. This is why I didn't want you here."

"No, don't mind me… you're impressive. You're badass, even." Marcus slumped behind Fara, fed up with his inability to help. "I really think we should open a private channel to the team – encode it or something. How can Venom seriously pinpoint our location based on a single transmission! This planet has more wireless radio chatter than any other in Lylat!"

"Radio silence has helped me survive in stealth _many times_ in the past," she replied. She leaned around the corner and opened fire again then ducked back behind the building's corner. Two more gunshots passed into the opening of the alley, glancing off the facing wall. "And we don't want them to find out that Jane is here."

"If anything, they've already called in to their field commander about us, Fara. I'm not sure, but it's possible that our return is why I sense this strange uproar. If you ask me, we should use disinformation by opening up the radio and calling ourselves a reconnaissance team, sent in to assess the situation on behalf of the Cornerian Embassy. It's only a few blocks from here – it's perfectly believable."

Fara cut her gaze to Marcus and frowned. She held her weapon vertically with her left palm beneath her right wrist. A wisp of steam floated above the blaster's barrel. The city breeze, which created a slight wind-tunnel effect in the alley, caused her headfur to rustle gently. The soft sandy strands nearly touched her shoulder from going a few years without cutting it. Her gaze dropped, looking him over, then lifted to drink in his demeanor. "I see you truly believe this is the best course of action. You're a natural-born leader like your…"

Marcus lifted a paw to quiet her. "Stop – I'm honored by the comparison but dad used to tell me how he got that from Peppy every time he flew. It made him feel like he was competing. I would never try to out-fly my father – I just want to be me. I don't care how similar or different our little quirks may be, I just want to follow my heart. I grew up being told to follow my instincts… right now my gut says to open the communications line. We need intelligence if we're going to survive this." He paused and placed a paw to his ear. "Hey, they stopped shooting."

Fara blinked in stark realization. "You're right…" She peered around the corner and gawked at the empty intersection. "They're falling back…?" She drew the fancy sunshades down from her forehead and panned her gaze from left to right, scanning for hostiles. "Now what's going on? I swear, if that idiot feline is picking off our targets, or if some crazy lady is attacking the city like the one from Fichina…" Phoenix grinned then turned back to Marcus. "Do you sense anything out there?"

McCloud grew quiet for a moment then nodded. "There is a sense of fear. A change in their plans… they dread something or someone and want to fall back to protect Venom. …Look!" Marcus raised his right paw, pointing into the sky. In the distance, dozens of Venom ships launched, leaving white vertical strands in the wind like streamers at a farewell party.

"They're falling back to protect _Venom_?" Fara looked dubious. "From what? The Venom rebels were _crushed_ in the 'One-Day War'… Hell, we were there for it! There's no way they could have amassed enough help to stop the return of the empire!"

"I can't sense details," Marcus replied. "Let's just hurry back to GreatFox as soon as possible. The one thing I _can_ sense is that we're so far from a priority right now that I think our presence here is safe. I want to make haste…" He turned back to the street and waved for her to follow.

Fara holstered her blaster and grasped Marcus by the forearm. "Hold on, flyboy. We can't launch while they have so many ships in the air. They would have altitude superiority and shoot us down… Think about it, hon: all those guys shooting down at us at the same time… I don't care how good of a pilot we both _think_ we are… neither of us can dodge rain drops – especially ones as numerous as…"

Marcus lifted his paws again. "You're right. We should wait until it's clear. I'm just being impatient – they're the ones in a hurry. I'm sure it won't be a very long wait at the rate they're pulling out of the sector. Being a good leader means making smart calls… and _that_ requires listening to the advice of the professional in this situation."

Fara leaned forward and brushed her nose against the side of his muzzle, just beneath his ear. "Now you're learning, Marcus. They're preoccupied with leaving – let's count our blessings."

"…Instead of becoming an easy target – you're absolutely right." Marcus stepped out onto the street and opened his mind to the area. "It's hard to tell, but I think we're safe. I, uh, don't sense being in anyone's crosshairs."

"What about the bio weapon?" she asked.

Marcus shook his head slowly. "When we first arrived, I sensed very primitive thought patterns – alien ones. But even that's gone. I've never seen someone pack up shop so quickly before now."

Phoenix placed her sunglasses into a special case. "I'm surprised by their efficiency in pulling off such a grand-scale evacuation." She moved back to the mouth of the alley, knelt to one knee and placed a paw to her headset. "Phoenix to GreatFox – we've completed our mission."

Crimson's voice filled her ear. "Mission accomplished huh? So you guys took out the bio-weapon? By the way, Imperial occupation is fleeing the planet in such large numbers that we had to pull back and sit in orbit behind Eladard's moon. They're all heading for Venom. Did you guys do that?"

Fara frowned and said, "I doubt it. And our mission wasn't _accomplished_, just completed. They packed up the bio weapon and ran. Faster than I've ever seen any other force mobilized – _ever_. Something is definitely up."

"It might have a lot to do with the fact that the StarFox carrier has just appeared out of nowhere. We need you two back – it's an emergency. The General wants to know if the GreatFox carrier is a trap and, if it's not, they want to know the status of the passengers before anyone boards the ship."

Fara's eyes widened. "Why not run a sensor sweep?"

"An anomaly is causing glitches – we need Marcus' telepathy. Get him ready, Fara… he can't use his abilities if he's emotional. Get him relaxed and don't let him know what he's about to scan – if he has a completely neutral mindset, he'll be the most effective. If you tell him his parents might be dead on that ship, he'll be a wreck."

Marcus approached Fara and cleared his throat, having sensed the conversation through her. "Tell him that emotions won't cloud my ability to sense my _mother_. Kursed's hate and murderous rampage made me emotional, but I connected to her so well that I was even seeing her actions in my day dreams."

Fara froze, turned to Marcus then cleared her own throat. "He already knows, Crim… _Red_. He's standing right here, stoic as can be, telling me that he has a special link to his mother – emotions won't hinder him. Let us know when the last Venom fighter has broken through the stratosphere. We'll be back at the pod, waiting for clearance."

"There's no time," replied Crimson over the radio. "Head to the pod, we'll fly by for a pick up. We're going to change our trajectory and come down from behind the planet. We'll be coming from the west." He sighed softly then said, "If they're alive, Vivian's mom is going to be really upset." The audio connection closed at the source. Fara then turned to Marcus and frowned at him.

McCloud fidgeted nervously. "I should be the one to talk to Lucy. I was with Peppy up until the day he died, it's my responsibility."

Fara shook her head and cupped the side of his face. "Leave it to Vivian – they'll need a 'family moment'. After all, you'll need to be the one to console your father. He loved Peppy as a family member, you know?"

"Are you going to be all right, seeing him again?"

She eased her paw through his headfur then rubbed her fingertips behind his left ear. "I've thought of him as married, not to mention dead, for five years. If anything, I expect _him_ to feel awkward – he believed in a lie for _decades_. The only one I thought we'd ever have problems with was Falco, because you were involved with his daughter." She began walking back towards the pod with Marcus behind her. "As it turned out, he was understanding and cool about everything. Aside from a little bout of awkwardness, I'm sure everything will be fine."

"If they're alive," Marcus added, coming alongside of her. "I'm praying my tail off right now," he admitted in a soft voice.

* * *

**Wolf O'Donnell turned from the sensor scope back to Dash.** "It appears a Cornerian ship is tractoring the anomaly object away from the sector – I can't scan for details, our sensor array has acted fickle for a _very_ long time." He cut his gaze to his daughter then to her mate and finally back to Bowman. "So what's all this crap about my cargo and how in the hell did you even know about it?" 

"It's a radioactive metal," said Carey. "They could see it from the next sector away if they knew what to look for in the data readout from the sensor sweep. I'd guesstimate your cargo hold is worth more than the entire current Venom economy at this moment."

Wolf canted his head, leering at Dash. "And I understand you wish to _buy_ this metal from me? What for?"

"We need the raw materials to create a power source for our…"

Wolf backhanded Bowman across his face. "_That_ is for lying to me. So, are you using it to make some sort of weapon? The raw energy readings this stuff gives off causes our long-range sensors to act weird. Something that gives off its own energy is only good for _one_ thing – making a weapon."

"Mister O'Donnell…" Dash reached his hand to his jaw.

The lupine offered a snarl. "Don't lie to me, boy. Your money is only as good as your credit. I don't do deals with people who run scams."

Dash nodded with a sigh. "It's to make a weapon. Also, it's a serious danger to your health and to the health of your family and to the clients who frequent your home."

"Shut up," snapped Wolf. He approached Bliss, narrowed his gaze then placed a paw on the side of her face. He use his thumb to brush a bit of her facial fur aside then frowned. "You've got a cut – looks like you've washed the blood out of your fur. You saw combat or something?"

"It's a long story, daddy," she told him, adding, "He's got money – this is a fantastic deal."

"Is that so?" Wolf dropped his paw from her face, turned towards his desk and folded his arms. "You're talking like you've either bit your tongue or you're recovering from a broken jaw – which is it?"

"A little bit of both." Bliss folded her arms then said, "Mom is going to stomp your ass if she finds out you've got that nasty crap down in the hold and it could cause birth defects."

"That _would_ explain your idiot brother," replied O'Donnell with an inward grin. They both knew he was joking – that the shipment of the Uranium didn't coincide with the birth of the twins. He turned around and sat on the desk. "So, Bowman, this is your ace-in-the-hole to get control of Venom back from that chump Andrew?"

"Venom respects power. If I wield more power than my cousin, they'll follow _me_."

Bliss turned to her employer and glared at him. "Then why are you letting Andrew take all the credit for the attack on Corneria? They probably think he's a demi-god right now."

Wolf approached Bowman. "So _you_ are responsible for the first attack and you want enough raw materials to make a second. You know, that attack was hard on business. Why the hell should I invest in your little war game? What are you trying to prove?"

"Andrew claimed he set off the first nuclear blast when, in fact, the only attack he organized was the assassination of the General. When I have another bomb to back up a future threat, Venom will expect Andrew to rise up and accept my challenge. They'll see him unable to deliver – that cripples his credibility. I'll use the bomb on _him_. Then the rivalry over _who_ owns Venom will be over – it will belong to _me_, the rightful heir by blood."

"Men…" Carey rolled her eyes.

Dash turned to Granton and said, "Andrew's government platform opposes gender equality relationships like the one you're in _right now_."

Carey held up her paws. "Don't talk politics to me, asshole."

Bliss turned to Wolf and cut a sly grin. "See why I love her, pop?" She turned back to Bowman and told him, "You're losing merit. If you fail negotiations _here_, you'll screw up _everything_. It only takes _my_ word of mouth to tell everyone that Andross is dead and that you're faking his existence. Then _you_ will be the laughing stock of Venom. Give us one good reason why not to melt down this crap, drain it into a few missile casings, and shoot it into the nearest blackhole…?"

"Andrew will use Venom to crush Corneria," said Dash. "When last I ruled over Venom, there may have been tension, but there was still peace."

"You're a joke," retorted Wolf. He rolled his eyes, including the implant. "You _tried_ to get power hungry, but you crashed the Venom economy and could never stage a large enough resistance. We _all_ remember that you were a failure as Venom's leader."

Dash sighed in frustration. "Andrew and Andross left it in ruins – what did I have to work with? Besides that, I was young and inexperienced." Without warning, a loud proximity warning chirped in alarm.

"Now what?" Wolf slid off his desk and approached a computer terminal. He logged in then pulled up the sensor grid. "…What in the F-?" he trailed off in confusion then, after a moment, finished the last word of the statement. The timber wolf glanced over his shoulder at Bliss. "Tell the goons downstairs to scramble – launch all fighters. Venom has a sizable fleet inbound from Eladard and they're headed _here_. The border patrol asked what's going on and this fleet destroyed the patrol."

Dash's eyes widened, worried about the Uranium. "Venom is attacking Sargasso?"

Wolf snarled at the monitor. "The head ship has sent a text-only communication. It reads, '_surrender your station and its cargo or prepare for destruction_.' You idiot!" He approached Bowman and struck the ape in the face. Dash crumbled to the floor under the powerful jaw-jarring punch. Wolf narrowed his eyes down at the man on the ground. "They must have followed you, knowing you would lead them to the next weapon or, at the very least, where to get the materials to make another.

"This is what I'm going to do, Bowman… I'm going to surrender _you_, then send the cargo to a remote location via _instant transmission_. It'll be up to them to torture you since they'll want to know where another bomb is… Bliss?" He cut his gaze to his daughter.

Young Bliss withdrew a blaster and put the barrel against Dash's forehead. "Get up, old man. It looks like your plan backfired."

"I'm your employer!" Dash got to his feet, keeping his eyes on her weapon.

"Oh pipe down," replied the half-breed with a smirk. "I'm your last chance at survival here, so stop whining." She turned to her father and said, "You always told me that business comes first… even before family. You told me that the blood of your family will still be there tomorrow, but that business can dry up overnight if you don't make it your first love."

"Are you going to _help_ him _escape_?" Wolf sneered.

She grinned at her father in a knowing way. "Still love me, daddy? We'll need that Uranium, too." She turned the gun on her father and winked at him. "Don't be upset, I've got my priorities straight: Business before family, just like you taught me."

"Fair enough," said Wolf. "I suppose I'm proud of you for showing that you've got more gull than your brother. Go down to the hold and set the instant transmission coordinates. Then, you and Mister Bowman will have to take the stealth-enabled escape pod. It only fits three people."

"You're going down to set the coordinates; I've got to keep my eye on you, daddy." She then turned to her mate and said, "Coming, honey?"

"Why not," said Carey. "You'll need me if you're going to be around this radioactive metal, Bliss." She turned back to Wolf and said, "See you around, Mister O'Donnell. Tell 'mom' I said _hello_."

"I'm sure Nicky will be thrilled to hear about all of this," Wolf replied, heading for the door. "This way, you three. We're running out of time, so don't dawdle." He led the three out of the room at gunpoint.

* * *

**The rottweiler's broad shoulders filled the main view screen**. His eyes shifted beyond Fara Phoenix to Marcus McCloud. "So, it's true… You really are in charge of the new StarFox team." Captain Parker canted his head, looking back at Fara Phoenix. "And seeing _you_ is like being face to face with a ghost." 

"You were quite the hot-headed little flyboy, Simon." Fara afforded him a smile. "I'm proud of you. You finally took your career seriously and _now _look at you… Captain of his own ship – very impressive."

"I had a good instructor," he replied. "On that note, I'm pulling the Proteus back to a safe distance. I hope you understand… we have reason to believe this ship could be a Trojan Horse, designed to strike from inside the Cornerian fleet. I have a duty to the safety of my crew."

Marcus offered a faint smile. "At least now that we're out of Sargasso airspace, we can see that the crew is alive. We'll handle everything from here, Captain Parker. Thank you for your help!"

"We'll be in orbit over Katina, should you require emergency medical facilities. We have one of the best surgeons in the fleet aboard this ship. Bon chance." He closed the connection, prompting a Cornerian logo to fill the view screen with the ship's identification number encircling the Planetary Defense Council's seal.

The screen changed, showing the GreatFox carrier. Gouges and gashes lined the polarized hull plating. A gash ran from the front starboard to the aft section. Pock marks from collision with asteroids dotted the metallic enclosure around the bridge. Fara frowned. "It looks like they've been through a war."

McCloud wanted to remain optimistic. "We've had a forward-mounted cannon ripped clean off and we're a patchwork mess. We don't have any room for pessimism. This could be the answer to our prayers – a second StarFox team to help us fight Imperial Venom."

Fara nodded and placed her paws on a nearby computer console, leaning over it. Her near-shoulder length sandy headfur pooled to one side. "You're right – the cruiser looks far worse than _their_ ship."

Marcus cleared his throat and said, "ROB, scan the docking clamps and prepare us to board the GreatFox carrier. Are you able to dock the ships without a pilot on the other bridge?"

"Docking with one pilot is feasible – ship separation is what requires one active pilot on each ship. Networking with the carrier section now…" He paused then said, "Synchronizing with carrier data storage; preparing to backup data and harmonize computers into Raid-1 system, stand by… Ship storage drives now connecting in Raid; re-installing backed up data and combining archive data from both drives."

"Enough," Falco muttered. "We don't need a freakin' play-by-play, it's borderline melodramatic, ROB. Dammit," he walked off the bridge.

"What in the…?" Theodore turned to face Marcus.

"He's worried they're hurt," McCloud explained. "He feels this is taking too long – he's frustrated and… like I said – he's worried about them."

Vivian sighed. "My _mother_ is on that ship." She placed her right palm over the front of her overalls, taking comfort in the feeling of Nibbles wiggling around within the pocket. "Both of Teddy's parents are on that ship. Marcus, _your_ parents are on that ship. He's that pressed over his friends, but what about the rest of us? That's flesh and blood _family_ over there… we're worried too."

Marcus held his paw up. "He's lived with most of them for his entire life. Especially my father. He's not flesh and blood but he's definitely just as worried as we are… and he has a different way of showing his concern. We sit here and bite our nails; he gets impatient and loses his temper. Everyone is different. C'mon, let's go down to the lower deck and wait for the connection."

Fara placed her paw on McCloud's forearm. "Wait…" She licked her lips slowly then frowned. "What if this _is_ a trap? We've caused Venom a _lot_ of grief lately… if this is their way of taking us out, we'd be done for… What about sending ROB over in a _shuttle_, just to be safe?"

Marcus paused to think it over. He turned to ROB then asked, "Can you verify that this carrier is _not_ a clone ship?"

The robot typed a few buttons on the control panel then turned around to face the crew. "The serial number matches on the ship, the docking clamps, and the connectors on the belly of the cruiser match the automated confirmation code on the receiving end. That is the authentic GreatFox carrier. The hull has undergone stress factors that verify it was indeed victim to a trans-dimension gravity slip, or at the very least, all relative theories concerning a gravity slip."

Fara fluffed her headfur. "Remember to look _twice_ before crossing the road, Marcus. But earlier you said you _can't_ sense your mother?"

"I sense _some_thing faint, but she's unconscious – not dreaming or in a state of alpha. If she's comatose, I can't connect with her. I appreciate your idea of sending over ROB in a lifeboat, but your objection is overruled… We're going to dock but we're not going to board it _just_ yet. Instead, we're going to take the entire GreatFox Flying Fortress away from this populated sector and then we're going to run tests. We'll separate the ships and send over _volunteers_, including myself."

Fara opened her muzzle to speak but nothing came out. She tilted her head then nodded. After a moment, she smiled."That's a fair compromise." She looked ill at ease and thought, '_Marcus, you're the leader – don't put yourself in unnecessary danger._' She offered a weak grin to him. However, other harbored feelings remained as an undertone in her thought patterns.

McCloud cut his gaze to Theodore and Vivian. "Guys, get our ships out of here. I want to be far away from Venom's forces, far away from populated airspace. I'll be back, I need to talk to Fara." He turned to her then nodded towards the conference room behind the bridge. They walked out of the command center and waited until the doors slid shut behind them. Marcus turned to her and frowned. "I know it was probably hard for you when you first woke up; you must have felt like you lost everything – for the most part, you did. But I'm not going to die just because I take the reins every once in a while."

Fara looked uncomfortable. "This is awkward, Marcus. I never intended to have any feelings for you."

"You're twenty-five and I'm twenty-two. Just because you're _supposed_ to be in your fifties doesn't mean anything. Seriously, Fara, we talked about _fate_ and _freewill_ earlier. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Maybe you were put into stasis and woke up when you did because it was fate. Maybe how we handle our situation is our freewill. Maybe what we make of it will be our destiny, you know? But I sense you have feelings for me, I'm falling for you and I'm lucky that you're so patient."

The fennec's ears lowered, put off by the fact that he was right. She took another deep breath then nodded in agreement. "Okay, you're absolutely correct. But it's awkward having your feelings read to you by someone else. Listen, I've prepared myself to come face to face with Fox and his wife. Do you think they're going to feel discomfited that you and I have grown close? It borders on gauche."

"Actually, I have no idea. It's possible that my mother will sense our feelings and empathize with our situation… At least, I hope so. I'm not sure. They're already going to be emotional and floored to find out they have a grandson. I'm sure it's going to be …weird for them to find out that I've not even seen him yet… I know they're going to be overwhelmed with all this stuff going on."

Fara placed a paw on the side of his face. "I've been dwelling on that, too. I think we should keep our relationship private for the sake of… well, I don't want anyone to feel like we're flaunting it – we'll stay professional in public."

"Are you _sure_ you're going to be okay when you see dad again?" Marcus licked his lips apprehensively and said, "I mean, you guys were…"

Fara placed her finger against his muzzle to quiet him. "It's ancient history, Marcus." She brought her other paw up and cupped both sides of his face. "Fox and I only dated for a very short time; meanwhile you and your first serious relationship were together for about two years. You're over Violet and here she is - acting very distant towards you. Even though you're one another's _first_, right?" She waited until after he nodded then said, "And you guys were together much longer. I've had _five years_ to get over the fact that my first 'serious boyfriend' is married. You should be able to sense that from me, right?"

"You're still hard to read because of _my_ emotions. I get a little silly around you – the way I used to feel about Violet when I was still, you know…"

Phoenix laughed softly. "You're a sweetheart, Marcus. I understand – I never thought I'd feel giddy around a boy ever again… then I met you. It's like breathing underwater, but at the same time, I feel like I fly higher _with you_ than when I'm without you."

Marcus offered a sheepish grin, looking to break the slight tension. "So, you're not upset that I ran out on the battlefield and got us pinned down in an alley?"

"You came to me with crucial information," Fara reasoned empathetically.

Marcus shook his head. "I could have radioed you – you said we could use encoded field transmissions, but not to call the ship."

"It's okay," she replied. "You came out because you wanted to watch my back, right?"

"That's exactly the reason I came to find you."

Fara caressed the side of his face with her palms. "We're on the same page. In reversed roles, I'd have backed you up, too… and without saying anything, just in case they were monitoring our transmissions. Yes, you disobeyed a direct order, but you're in charge of this team and have the authority to override _my_ commands. Now, if Red or any of the others disobeyed _your_ order or one from Falco …or even me, I would be _very_ disappointed."

"I'm glad you understand."

"I'm open minded." Fara lowered her paws. "…at least I try to be." She took a deep breath then said, "Are you _that_ pressed about boarding the GreatFox carrier _now_? I know you only made that call on the bridge to compromise with me, or at the very most, to placate me… but I trust you and I trust your instincts. Hell, it seems like every McCloud has good instincts. If you think it's not a trap, then we should go over there immediately in case they're hurt."

"I appreciate it," said Marcus.

"I know you half-expect me to act strange when I come face to face with Fox." Fara took his paws into her own and gave them a gentle squeeze. "I _really_ like you; I only have these feelings for _one_ man at a time. And, quite honestly, in the past month that we've been working together, I feel closer to _Marcus McCloud_ than anyone else I've ever dated. When you came back from the hospital, after changing your name, it was like you were a new man. You had a deeper level of maturity in your eyes and... I don't know what to say. Heck, maybe when this stuff blows over, we can actually try doing something traditional."

"Dinner and a movie, huh?" He took her paws into his own and smiled. "I'd like that. Thank you for trusting in my judgment. Now that the ships are docking together, I want to get over there as quick as I can."

She offered a slow nod then drew her paws from his. "Let's go and make sure everyone is all right."

"I'm glad you're seeing things my way," said Marcus. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a silver container. He pulled dark sunglasses from the case and put them on to hide his mismatched eyes. "Once they're safely in medical, I want to run a two-point patrol and track the enemy ship movements. We'll record their wake patterns, try to guesstimate their fleet size and see if they've made any pit stops on the way back to Venom." The GreatFox rocked slightly, followed by a loud, distant metallic 'clang'.

Marcus cleared his throat then said, "Docking is complete. Let's go down to the carrier and investigate."

Fara nodded slowly and fell into step behind the vulpine team leader.

Down in the lower deck, Theodore and Vivian were ready with a stretcher and Falco had his arms folded, waiting for the hallway to pressurize. Fara and Marcus stepped into the room and remained quiet. The light above the door flickered then illuminated in a bright green. The doors swished open. The metallic corridor led to another set of doors at the far end, labeled "Carrier Bridge" in bold black lettering.

Crimson stepped into the hallway behind them, approaching Marcus and Fara from the left. "Real fast, we need to talk."

McCloud, emotional as ever, quirked his brow at Crimson O'Donnell. "Red, our families are on the other side of that door."

Theodore, Vivian and Falco continued up the connector hall, leaving Marcus and Fara to stop, halfway down the corridor. Crimson lowered his voice and licked his lips, taking a deep breath. "My sister just sent me an encoded message – she said Dash Bowman is behind the attack on Corneria, _not_ Andrew. She's still his acting body guard; she discovered plans for another attack."

Fara covered her muzzle with her left paw in silence. Marcus' eyes widened. Crimson shook his head then glanced over his shoulder furtively. He returned his gaze to them and, in a soft whisper, said, "Dash Bowman was the one who recommended we fly with Theodore… what if he's a spy?"

Marcus leered at his friend. "Impossible, he's Slippy's son. I'd have sensed something."

"Lately, we've all been emotional and distracted," O'Donnell mused, adding, "He already dislikes his father – what if he doesn't stand for all the same things… I don't want to doubt him, you know? However, he was friends with Bowman, the guy behind the massive attack on Corneria… we should, at the very least, keep an eye on him."

Fara rubbed her temples with her fingertips. "We have to treat this very delicately. I've been at the center of a situation involving traitors, before John Pepper was a General. We can't let Theodore know we _suspect_ anything – he might not even know Dash is doing this. Dash could be keeping that low profile so Theodore will continue to keep communication with him as a friend. It's difficult to say. For now, let's plan our next step carefully, as well as get these other pilots into a medical bay."

* * *

A/N: _I cut this return-chapter into a two-part piece just to build suspense! I'm working on the new one RIGHT NOW. I'm also on vacation in Florida so I'm not sure if I'll finish it between now and when I come home on Wednesday. I'll try, but no promises. Chapter 27 will have a lot of action, but first… I'll start it by having all our characters cross paths and tie up loose ends. We all want to know how Fox and Krystal's crew feel… we want to know how they'll take learning about Peppy's passing, Beltino being on his death bed and, of course, how Krystal and Fox will respond to Star "Marcus" McCloud, his bastard child and his new relationship with Fara. Also, after re-reading the ENTIRE SERIES in Chronological order, I found a lot of small loopholes to fix, especially in THIS story. I've made notes at every mistake, so I'll go back and fix them soon... not every little editorial (just yet), but when I use the wrong name of a character in the wrong spot, or when I have a conflicting scene... yeah, I'll be fixing all of that REAL soon. For example! Falco is like, "Are you still hanging out with your buddy, Crimson?" LMAO, WOOPS! Marcus met Crimson on Katina after his family was MIA, when Crimson was on the planet, doing a job for his father... he stayed on Katina when he basically 'left home', after an argument with Wolf. Falco should NOT have known about Marcus and Crimson's friendship! So I'm going to go back, fix that, and do a better scene where Falco and Crimson meet one another for the first time. OH, and I noticed I was titling the chapters of this story for C23, 34 and 25... But I didn't do that for the older chapters... woops. I'll fix that at some point, too! lol_

_Now..._

_I've got the first four pages of chapter 27 done. I've got Slippy waking up first and things are tense for Theodore. Then, Marcus has a scene with his mother, while Fox wakes up and talks to Fara in person... then Krystal speaks to Fara, one on one, followed by Lucy and Amanda waking up. And boy, oh boy, does Vivian dread telling her mother that Peppy is gone. Since Vivian spent the last 8 months taking care of Beltino, who is now bed-ridden, the first thing she does is tell Slippy to go and see his father then talk to his son, since all this stuff is going on. _

_I'm sure you're ALL on edge, wanting to know how Fox, Fara and Krystal are going to interact with one another. I've not decided yet. :D_

_However, for all of you who were HUGE fans of Marcus and Fara working things out, so far it's working! See? I always take care of my fans. lol. _

_I want you guys to know something interesting: I based Violet and the situation involving baby Falco on what happened between me and my ex-wife in 2005. She's bi-polar but insanely smart and absolutely beautiful. Her mother dislikes me but is civil and pleasent to me in person. If I call and she just happens to answer, she won't just hang up, you know? That's how Katt treated Marcus. My ex-wife named our first son after her father, as he'd passed on about one year into our relationship. She explained to me that he wanted a son to carry on the family name, so Violet has the same mentality. She thinks her father is dead, right? Falco never had a son, at this point, so Violet names her first born son after her father in his honor. I guess you could say I did that in the story because it's my way of saying I respect my ex-wife's decision to do such. I respect her, too. _

_Fara represented 'moving on' with someone 'familiar'. but that never happened for me, in real life... but the fans loved Fara, so I kept it going. Also, my third son, (the second to come from my relationship with my ex-wife), was born after the divorce. She disappeared from me for a while and didn't return my calls or anything... I drove down there on her birthday out of the blue and she didn't LET me see the kids... I was upset. I meant no disrespect towards my ex-wife (whose name I'll not mention, because she would probably not like it and I wish to respect her wishes). She told me that I put her as a 'second priority' in life, so I wrote that Violet feels that way about Marcus... I wrote that he put his team before Violet and she took it personal. When I wrote that Katt drove away with the baby and Marcus got forced into a fist fight with that bully driving the tow truck, that came from an incident with my oldest son, when I was in a small argument with HIS mother. She and I were struggling to get along over some sort of misunderstanding and so I ran out to her car in the apartment complex parking lot. I knelt down by the driver's side window and gave her some money... I didn't have much to give, but I gave what I had. She took it, reluctance in her eyes... then drove away... just as some guy was pulling up to start a fight with me for sitting in the middle of the lot, even though he had a lot of room to go around me. He just wanted to start a fight... _

_Needless to say, I was going through a lot of emotional stuff between chapter 12 and chapter 18. That's why this story reflected it. My buddy, Wulf51, told me that she respected me for writing during such emotional times, and said she commended me on my "Testicular fortitude". heh. I love that term. _

_I'll be returning to the theme of Marcus' son soon enough, but I have no intention of turning this story into 40 chapters or more. However, I already have people ASKING FOR A SEQUEL in Marcus' life. If you guys wanna read it, LET ME KNOW! He'd go and finish at the accademy, Crimson would begin his first year (and leave the team for a short time, in order to do so), making the team go on a few missions as the canon group seen in the COMMAND ending... Marcus, Falco, Lucy's daughter and Slippy's son. Marcus would remain under that name for the entire story and be about 23 years old. Fara would be in it, but she wouldn't fly EVERY mission with the team. However, she would have a full-character role, not just some cameo like Crimson, Bliss, Sugar (you'll be amused how she plays a quick cameo at the end of this story, for what I have planned thusfar), etc. _

_I was just going to leave a very short A/N at the end of this chapter, but after so many months, I felt I should say.. SOMETHING, you know? And, so, I decided to ramble - sorry! For any of you guys who are 'hard core fans', now you know that this story has more meaning to me than some realize. _

_Also, I plan on finishing Reflections of Peppy (and have been keeping notes on what I want to do for future chapters and how I want to relate them to the series... for example, I'll eventually show how Peppy got a hold of Fox McCloud's headset communicator, because he gave it to Star, very early on in this story... so I want to write how Peppy got a hold of it!) and Reflections of Fox McCloud (because Fara is just so fun to write about and Fox's youth is very cool, since we can all relate, after playing the games that made him famous, right? Right)!_

_In any case, I still plan on finishing Spy Cooper, Similar Paths Taken, The Curse, my 'Bandwagon Story of Doom', and I'm even going to post Act2 of "Greatest of Three Evils", but I'm not going to 're-write' it, like the 'bandwagon story', because that would be time consuming! Oh, and how could I forget to mention Nothing Passed Tomorrow? That's quite a cliff-hanger I left off at, huh? Both Fara AND Fox are under Illeria's power... that's pretty hard core! lol But I want to finish this series because it's what people are waiting to read right now. _

_I just wanted to make sure I actually reminded you guys, I never "GIVE UP" on any story, nor will I ever retire an unfinished story. I just... take a little break. ;)  
After all, I DID just update the Bandwagon Story like, what... last month I think? So there ya go! _

_Thanks for reading guys! See you next chapter!_


	27. Chapter 27

C h a p t e r _**Twenty**-**Seven**_

_**A few decades back…**_

…**Fox McCloud pressed a key on his chair's armrest**. The broad expanse of Katina filled the GreatFox carrier's view screen. He slumped into the chair and took a deep breath, recalling how Krystal didn't even reply to him for several moments before smartly rebutting something along the lines of, "Stuff it loser…" followed by a communiqué from her new _boyfriend_, Panther. Now, after having just flown a mission with them, he was even _more_ sick to the stomach. He pressed another key and the communications network resumed an open channel with StarWolf, minus Wolf O'Donnell. 

Krystal, still donned in her Cornerian flight gear, reappeared above the holo-emitters on GreatFox's near-empty bridge. "It looks like you guys are heading for Venom. How will you survive those acidic oceans?" 

Fox folded his arms and answered honestly. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. …I suppose." His green eyes bore into the holographic image of her flight visor. 

Krystal narrowed her partially obscured gaze. "Ha! I never thought I'd see the day! The great Fox McCloud at a loss for ideas!" To her comment, Fox had no reply. She smirked then continued. "I guess you thought that you could do _everything_ by yourself, right?" She was bottling too many emotions to use her telepathy to tell any different.

"That's not true! That's why I came to find you… I wanted to ask for your help." 

"The Krystal you once knew is gone. She is no longer a part of _your_ world!" The lithe blue vixen placed her svelte paws upon her hips and glared at him. 

"Krystal, I was a fool! A selfish, rude, arrogant fool. Please come back!" Fox dropped his arms at his sides for a moment, then re-folded them in an attempt to at least show some measure of resolve in his body language. 

"Well… if you apologize to me. In front of everyone." She cocked her head to the left and added, "Then maybe I'll think about it. _Maybe_." She lifted her head again at Fox's silence and narrowed her eyes ever so slightly. 

Panther's image filled the holo-array. "Krystal, don't let this rogue change your mind! Let's get out of here!" 

The feline's words clinched the deal for Fox. He took a deep breath then said, "I'm… sorry…" His eyes dropped to the deck.

Krystal balked. "What was that? I couldn't quite hear you." 

Fox threw his paws into the air and erupted, "I'm sorry, Krystal! I'm so sorry!" Leon began to chant and chide but Fox spoke over the chameleon without a second thought on the matter. "…I'm truly sorry. Please… Please come with me. I need you with me." Krystal offered him no reply. She tightened her jaw and looked down at the deck, sensing his words to be true. 

Panther rolled his eyes with an egotistical grin. "This is absurd! Krystal, tell this loser where to stuff his Arwing and let's go!" Still she said nothing. 

She removed her flight helmet and walked out of the holo-emitter's range. 

Fox ran his fingers through his hair, wondering what her silence meant. He closed the channel and lowered his head to his palms to hide his face. He didn't want to sob, even in front of ROB, but he was full of pent up emotions. He took several deep breaths then his ears perked up. Slippy and Falco had returned to GreatFox from their patrol. He lifted his head and watched them walk onto the bridge. 

McCloud cleared his throat and told his friends, "Set a course for Titania – whatever Commissioner Toad thinks is hiding on Titania… we'll have to find it alone. I don't think she's coming." 

Falco dropped into a chair by the helm and crossed his ankles with a shrug. The automatic doors at the far end of the bridge swished open. Krystal, no longer donning her Cornerian flight suit, stepped onto the bridge of GreatFox to the surprise of the entire crew. Falco sat up from his seat and half-grinned at her. "Krystal!" 

Slippy jerked his head to face her. "Krystal! Hooray! You and Fox made up!" 

The vixen visibly flinched then glowered at him. "And what do you mean by that, Slippy Toad?" To his defense, Fox opened his muzzle to say something but Krystal lifted a paw, gesturing him to silence. "You and your _Fox did this_ and _Fox did that_! You never get tired of talking about him, do you?" 

Falco approached McCloud and patted his fast-friend's shoulder. "Geeze, Krystal! Give the little fella a break." 

In a softer voice, Slippy added, "T-that's so mean…" He stuffed his hands into his pocket, wondering what Fox must have felt like to hear her speak in such a way. He tried to imagine what it would have felt like for Amanda to be so cruel but couldn't even fathom it.

Fox, in an attempt to remain professional, took a deep breath and sighed. "So, Krystal? About the secret of Titania? If you know something, you need to tell us." 

Krystal cocked her head ever so slightly to the left. "…Fine." She gave a slight tug at her pink body suit. It matched the blue one she wore during the Aparoid invasion but with indigo sleeves. She'd not worn the suit in quite some time and found it in her old room after boarding GreatFox. The rest of StarFox remained in quiet shock, seeing her in it. She continued speaking to them. "A long time ago, Andross started developing a new machine. This device would make Venom a beautiful planet that could support life." 

This time, Fox balked. "Venom? Beautiful?" 

Krystal ignored him and went on with her explanation. "Andross was deemed to be a dangerous fanatic and banished to Venom. He was condemned to a life of isolation and loneliness." 

Again, Fox interrupted. "That lousy ape is nothing more than a crazed maniac!" 

Krystal narrowed her eyes with an admonishing gaze. "You say that because he killed your father." The team gasped at her tenacity. She shrugged off their reaction and explained, "But at that time, he was Corneria's chief science officer. He was also a close colleague of General Pepper but they were like oil and water. Their infighting was a precursor to war." 

Fox turned away from her and shouted, "No! That's a LIE! Andross ignored an _order_ to halt his dangerous experiments! He was banished as punishment!" 

Krystal's voice took on an uncaring air, as if somewhat glad to get under her ex-boyfriend's fur. "His motives were pure, Fox!" Her tone calmed and became almost sympathetic. "He just wanted to continue his research. He never asked for money or kickbacks of any kind!" 

Fox folded his arms and turned back to her, keeping his fists balled up. "Yeah? Well if he's so pure, why did we end up going to war!" Normally, anyone who would have brought up Andross in such a way would have wound up in a physical brawl with Fox but he couldn't raise his paw to Krystal. However, his challenging tone caused Krystal to become silent. She simply turned away. 

Falco stepped up and threw his feathery fingers into the air. "Enough! We don't have time to blab about the past right now!" 

Krystal nodded and said, "You're right, Falco. Let me continue." She turned back to the team and said, "After Andross fought you, he dedicated his remaining days to the planet Venom. He wanted to leave some sort of legacy. That's all." She knew it was deeper than a simple legacy, after his attack on Sauria, his reawakening on Fichina… not to mention his alleged attack on Cerinia. However, Krystal's tone suggested that she may have learned something different about the ape during her time away from Fox.

McCloud's serious, professional tone returned. "And now that device is on Titania. I'm sure he's hidden it somewhere people would never look." 

"Yes, that's it exactly." Krystal nodded in reply. "I imagine that one of his bioweapons is guarding the device." 

Fox nodded decisively and told her, "We're going to get that device. Krystal, you're coming, too!" He knew they would need a device capable of reversing the toxicity of the acidic Venom seas if they would have any chance at attacking the Anglars without destroying their ships. 

Krystal rolled her eyes and, in a nasty tone, said, "…Whatever." Secretly, she was excited to fly the Cloud Runner fighter again. She designed it with Fox's help at Space Dynamics on Corneria, before she and Fox ended their engagement. However, she didn't like Fox telling her what to do as though she was a part of his team again. In reality, she wasn't quite sure _why_ she came back to GreatFox. She still questioned her emotional response to Fox's earlier apology.

The world around Fox and Krystal faded to dark, leaving only the two of them standing side by side. Their faces aged considerably and the past was behind them. They both blinked at one another and she quickly wrapped her arms around him. "I, I never really realized how poorly I treated you that day," she sobbed. "I was stubborn and angry. I didn't mean to harbor that pain in my heart, let alone use it against you. I'm sorry, Fox." 

McCloud wrapped his arms around his wife then looked up into the surrounding void. "It was a long time ago, Krystal. I'm lucky you came back to me. Where are we? Can you sense anything?" 

She shook her head then frowned. "I sense nothing. Not even the rest of the team." 

"I hope we're not…" 

Krystal placed a paw against the side of his face and looked into his eyes. "We're not dead. I sense that much." She glanced over his shoulder into the darkness. After a moment, her eyes widened and she reached her free paw to her muzzle and covered her mouth, gasping through her fingers. "The Oracle!" 

"What?" Fox quirked a brow at her. "You've mentioned her before…" Together, they turned around then he blinked in surprise. Both of them faced the senior Cerinian. He gazed upon the elderly woman with reverence. "I've… heard my wife speak of you. I never thought I would personally meet you." 

The little old lady looked from Fox to his wife then offered a wrinkled smile. "The honor is all mine. I'm sorry to have put you through that emotional memory but I wished to make a point clear to you both. Even when you were at odds with one another, you couldn't stay apart. Yes, it was about a year, but you crossed paths again, as it was meant to be. That was the day that Krystal's heart began to mend. I nearly lost everything I'd worked for but that moment was out of my paws. I was relieved that you," she cut her gaze back to Fox again, "…did the right thing. Krystal's deep love started on the road to healing and finding forgiveness in you, Mister McCloud. If she didn't love you, she wouldn't have forgiven you and then all would be lost." 

She approached the two and used her walking stick to nudge them apart. "You can get a room when you both wake up. Stand up straight, you two." She grinned at their reaction… moving apart and standing up straight as asked, then she cleared her throat. "Good, now then… I've never told you _your _'fortune'," she said to Fox. "I don't need to – it's already been fulfilled, but I'll tell you anyhow. _Your skills will accomplish what the force of many cannot_. But this is also the future of your son. This is also the future and so-called 'fortune' of _his_ children. You've passed on your heritage and your fortune by means of blood. But with his abilities and his children's abilities comes _great responsibility_. Their talents will be necessary in the future in order to save _billions_ of innocent lives. More than just the planets of Lylat are at stake, although this danger is a long way off." 

The little old lady placed her walking stick back on the onyx ground and leaned on the handle. "You two made an adorable couple. I guess I should be proud of my match-making abilities." She chortled softly then told them, "I jest – I'm just pleased you two are married as you are today." 

"Where is our son?" asked Fox.

"I miss my baby," added Krystal. 

The Oracle lifted her gnarled old paw and placed a finger to her lips. "Shh." She cut her eyes to Krystal and said, "You're both in a coma. However, you're both alive. In fact, your bodies are laid out in… well, you'll see. I don't have long – I brought you both here for a reason." 

"Go on," said Krystal – hope shining in her eyes. She wanted to see her son again. "I miss Star terribly and want to see him again. Tell us what we must do." 

"You must wake up," she said with a chiding voice. "But head my warning: Mister Fox McCloud, you made a promise to your wife the day your son was born and you've _yet_ to make good on it. Do you remember the promise?" 

Fox blinked twice and glanced at Krystal. She reached her right paw to the side of his face and shook her head slowly. "Oh Fox, I might have known you would forget. Love, you promised me that you would retire and settle down with me. I know you have good intentions and I love you anyway." 

"I… I remember now; I'm sorry it happened so differently than I planned." 

Krystal nodded. "I know, sweetheart." She turned back to the Oracle. "Why bring it up?" 

"The future belongs to your son. It's his fight. Don't interfere. Help him and fight alongside of him at first… but once this immediate threat is dealt with, I want you both to concentrate on your love and your marriage. Leave the future fighting to your son. He'll make you both proud." 

"Wait," said Fox. "What immediate threat?" 

"You're home," said the Oracle. "Wake up and see." She approached the two again and cleared her voice. "You take good care of this girl," she told Fox. "I mean it. She's important to me. Now, off with you both. Rest a bit before you awaken." And with those final words, everything faded to black. 

* * *

_**Meanwhile…**_

**Fara Phoenix's Arwing crossed to the starboard side** and Marcus pulled into a loop. She corralled two fighters so that when he came out of his loop, both enemies appeared in his targeting reticule. His nosecone lined up with the boosters of his opponent and he opened fire on the first. He mashed down on the firing button repeatedly then eased into his rudder pedals, pulled back gently and growled. Green blaster fire trailed after the second enemy. He pulled back more on the stick. 

Leading his shots after the fleeing bogey, the Arwing's maneuverability proved superior. His volly of blaster rounds finally scored a hit on the Venom fighter. The propulsion manifold burst into a flash of plasma fire, burning hot in the vacuum of space. The flames drew back into the engine casing, attracted to rich oxygen within the fighter. Seconds later, the pilot ejected and his ship burst then abruptly imploded. Debris filled the area – Marcus performed a tight barrel roll, using the magnetic polarity to throw the metallic scraps in every direction. 

Fara pulled alongside of his ship. "Reverse magnetic roll tactic, huh? Cute," she mused with an approving tone. Marcus eyed the holographic box above his Heads Up Display then offered a playful wink. 

"This patrol has really been a boost for my ego, but I'm concerned with how many scattered Venom units are in this area." 

Phoenix nodded firmly. "I'm beginning to wonder about what Crimson told us yesterday." She glanced down at her sensor scope then added, "Not about Theodore, but about Dash Bowman being responsible. I can't believe the General ordered us to turn Teddy in; it doesn't sit right with me. Just the same, if Bowman is still involved with Venom then maybe this civil war actually involves _him_ against Andrew Oikonny." 

"It would explain a lot," replied Marcus. "The way I see it, half of these Venom units could be working for Bowman. The other half could be working for Oikonny. That would tell us why so many Venom units are available to attack Corneria… it's the one common interest that both sides have… they are still angry. Leading up to when the Anglars attacked before I was born, Corneria had very stiff regulations and sanctions on Venom. I mean, they practically disallowed modern technology to exist on that planet for a little while. We're probably dealing with a bunch of disgruntled twenty year-old lizards who grew up hearing their angry parents, of whom were raised in a broken economy." 

"You sense all of that from them?" Fara's voice suggested she harbored some measure of guilt. 

Marcus blinked, sensing nearby enemies. He guided his craft towards them with Fara following then cleared his throat. "Not recently. I sensed this from some of the Venom soldiers when Peppy and I crashed on Katina. I was sixteen." He punched a few keys on the panel beneath his left paw. "There were only a few groups in the area. It was Peppy's last real 'victory' in battle. He made one hell of a General – he organized several communities to band together. We struck at the Venom presence on that planet and wiped them out. We only took two casualties in the entire incursion. I wish he was still here – we could use his military strategies." 

"You see what I see?" she asked, changing the subject. 

"That's where we're headed." Marcus gave her a grin over the holographic display then tilted his head. "Almost… another hundred klicks…" He lowered his gaze to a monitor on his dash and scanned Fara's ship. So far, she'd not taken a single scratch. He cut his eyes back to the readout displaying the nearest enemy. "…And just a bit more. Okay, break and attack!" The younger fox broke hard to the left. Fara went to the right and they flanked the next battle group. 

"Two squadrons," she reported. 

Marcus tapped his afterburners. The ship responded with a fluid leap in speed. "I see a capital ship in the distance – they're an escort group!" 

"Good eyes!" Fara armed her smart missiles then performed a quick head-count of the fighter cover. 

"I'm going for the jackpot," said Marcus. "I want you to hang back and go after the 'tag-alongs' I pick up." He paused then chuckled. "Don't worry – I know what I'm doing. I've seen these ships before – they can't keep pace against an Arwing with my throttle wide open! Watch this!" 

"Marcus, wait!" Fara winced, recalling the time she went after a large ship. She didn't want to cramp his style, especially knowing his talent and abilities. "Don't forget to barrel roll – those ion missiles are no joke!" 

McCloud's ship broke into a string of tight barrel rolls. No sooner did he over-turn, a stealth ion-missile uncloaked only to glance off of his rapidly rotating hull. It spun out and fizzled into darkness. He armed a single torpedo. A loud whirring filled his cockpit as the correct ordinance cycled around within the Arwing until it came into place. He pressed a button under his thumb – another metallic noise; the hatch door opened on the belly. 

"I've got a clear shot! I just need a lock," he said. "I'm going to wait until I'm closer – I don't want these guys shooting down my only chance of stopping that thing." 

"Nothing else will penetrate their phase-shields," Fara replied. Her textbook answer made her freeze then break into silvery peals of laughter, fueled by the adrenaline of space combat. "I've armed my smart missiles. You've got two fighters breaking formation to pursue you!" 

"Only two?" Marcus narrowed his eyes, shifting them between the locking-status indicator and the instrumentation that showed him the distance from his target. "Almost there… a few more seconds!" 

"They're opening fire on you… get ready to barrel roll again! It should take a few seconds for their rounds to catch up to you! Wait, one of them fired a heat-seeking missile! It's right on your tail!" 

Marcus double kick-tapped his rudder pedal. The universe spun about him once more. The targeting computer cried out with a melodic chime. "I've got lock! Torpedo away!" He released the firing button and the ship shuttered. He rolled over and executed a vertical u-turn. 

"A split-s! Beautiful," Fara exclaimed. She watched as his Arwing doubled backed, so that its hot engines were no longer presented to the heat-seeking warhead. The missile casing continued forward, now locked on to the heat signature of the torpedo. Both slammed into capital ship, blowing through the side of the bridge. The ship pitched forward sharply. 

The titanic rupture glittered like a million firecrackers. The explosion and part of the reptile crew blew out through the hole in the side of the ship's command center. Fara narrowed her gaze, anticipating the flash. The sky brightened to a sheet of white. Both of the fighters in front of her responded with blind confusion, making them easy targets. She opened fire… 

"Two more fighters down, McCloud! Eight remain," she told him. "They're stunned! Now is our chance to take out as many as we can; I can guarantee all of them were watching that thing go up in flames!" 

"No lie," Marcus crowed. "The last thought I sensed just before the torpedo hit was, '_Where am I going to land?_' Let's get'em!" He opened fire on the nearest enemy, firing wildly. "'_Just shoot it, Star!_' That's what Peppy used tell me during our training sessions in the canyon." 

A grin tugged at the corner of Phoenix's muzzle. She recalled Fox telling her, '_You sure pealed the paint off of _that_ fighter!'_ back in another lifetime. "I'd offer professional assessment, but I think you've got your bases covered." 

"Let's finish these guys off," Marcus replied, tearing through an enemy. "Seven to go!" 

"We don't have all night to waste on these scumbags." Phoenix switched her ordnance to a Nova bomb and locked on to a cluster of five fighters. She opened the hatch door and fired her ordinance. The bomb lanced into the void then detonated with a brilliant flash. It stunned the remaining two fighters, making them easy prey to Marcus McCloud. Fara grinned at his next two victories then pulled alongside of him. "Tidy, hon. Let's get back to the GreatFox and upload our black box recorders for ROB. I want to figure out what's going on with Ted. Either we've been compromised and need to hide in the Meteo section, or he was loyal – in which case, we need him back to keep these cloaking devices in check. They're in need of repair and upkeep." 

"Agreed." Marcus sighed. "Mine is down – I can't even engage the stealth mode. They're really high-maintenance units. I hope my parents wake up soon so we can get their help in fighting Venom." 

"There's only one way to find out – let's return to base." 

Marcus glanced over to his right and waved to her. He saw her in her cockpit then erupted with, "Race you there!" 

* * *

**Slippy Toad rubbed at his eyes** then eased up on his elbow with a groan. He blinked twice then glanced around the medical room. To his immediate left, Amanda slept peacefully with Lucy Hare to his right. Across the room, Fox and Krystal slept in sickbay beds adjacent to one another. In a chair on the far end was Falco, next to Vivian Hare. 

The amphibian gasped then sat all the way up and smiled. "Falco! We made it!"

"Frog face," exclaimed Falco with a grin. He turned about in his chair, facing away from the screen. Vivian turned around, hurried over to Slippy, and hugged him. 

"I'm so glad you guys made it home before Mister Beltino passed away. He'll be glad to see you both!" She clung to him for a moment then stepped back, took a deep breath and wiped away tears in her eyes. "I'm glad you're awake. We need your help getting a hold of Teddy; we need to talk to him as quickly as possible." 

Slippy slid off the bed and stretched. "Sure, which planet is he on?" 

"It's not like that," she said in a softer voice. "Things took a very awkward turn in the last twenty-four hours since you guys arrived." 

Toad's face took on an expression of surprise. "We've been out _that long_?" 

Vivian ran a paw back through her headfur and sighed. "He was friends with Dash Bowman, who actually suggested for us to fly with him. It turns out that Dash is bad news. Someone working on the inside of his operations has let _us_ and the _current General_ in on what's going on. Because Theodore was close to Bowman, he's been taken into custody on the Proteus above Katina for questioning." 

"The _Proteus_?" Slippy blinked then rubbed the side of his face. "Okay, I'm going to need you guys to fill me in on what's going on. So, Dash Bowman did something wrong, and because Theodore was an associate of his, my boy is now being questioned by the military?" 

Falco approached Slippy and the two pilots shook hands. "Andrew Oikonny assassinated the General – he set off a small bomb and killed a lot of the higher-up brass. Bill Gray became the new General and a short time later, some sort of radiation bomb leveled Corneria's capital city." He watched Slippy's face change at the news of the attack on Corneria. Falco then continued speaking. "Andrew took credit for it to show Venom his 'awesome power' but inside intelligence claims that Dash Bowman was really responsible. Corneria wants to know everything Ted knows about Dash, leading up to their acquaintanceship over the last six months."

"That's odd," Slippy mused. "The Proteus attacked us on the other side… they're the reason we're here." 

Falco furrowed his brows. "Huh?" 

"Seriously," replied Slippy. "We followed you into the hole but we miscalculated. We wound up in this strange parallel universe where Lylat was defeated by a woman who calls herself 'Kursed'. When the captain of the Proteus saw us on his view screen, he thought Krystal was that woman and they attacked _us_ with a gravity bomb, supposedly invented by _Theodore_, another version of Lucy _and_ had the help of my father. It's all weird." 

Vivian re-approached Slippy and placed a paw on his shoulder. "Was she a blue vixen calling herself Kursed? You'd better talk to Marcus." 

"Okay, I can do that; who is he?" 

Vivian ran her fingers through her headfur yet again and said, "He changed his name… from Star McCloud. He _fought_ Kursed. It's a huge mess, and… not only that, but Peppy passed from age." 

Slippy brought his hands to his mouth with a silent gasp. She gave his arm a gentle squeeze then added, "But not everyone is dead – we actually have someone back _from_ the dead." 

"W-what's that supposed to mean?" He tilted his head. No sooner did he ask his question, Marcus and a fennec – dressed in flight suits – stepped into the room. She removed her magenta headset and tucked it into her belt. Slippy's eyes widened and his jaw dropped, immediately recognizing her. "Fara Phoenix!" 

She approached the frog quickly with a tight hug. "Slippy! Oh, it's been forever! I was so glad to see you guys alive!" She stepped back and looked him over then glanced to his left hand, cut her gaze to Amanda, who also wore a ring, then grinned. "Why, Slippy Toad, you lucky devil... You know,I worked with your son… he's an outstanding pilot, but I must say I'm proud of _you_. That's an impressive sparkler you put on her finger." 

Slippy grinned, looking down at his own wedding band then he glanced back at Fara and tilted his head. "You grew your hair out _really_ long." He reached up and touched the sandy shoulder-length locks. "Okay, not _really_, really long but you always kept such short hair in the past." 

"I'm not in the military anymore," she replied. "Listen, we need to get you over to the Proteus to talk to Theodore and see if he really _does_ know something – this involves our team because we've been commissioned to take on the Venom front line. We need his help …and yours." 

"I'll go right now," replied Slippy. He turned to Marcus and gave the younger pilot a hug. "Your parents are going to be so happy to see you. I see you've got your summer coat _really_ thick this year. I can't even see the star marking around your eye." 

"I dyed my fur, changed my name… it's a long story," Marcus said, hugging him back. "Then this woman who looked like mom, named Kursed, showed up out of the blue… and she went on a rampage and I… had to, uh… take her down. It's… complicated and I really need to talk to my mother when she wakes up. I've been miserable since this happened… Anyhow, we have a shuttle on the flight deck waiting to take you to the Proteus. After that, take it to Fichina and land on the island down at the equator – the coordinates are programmed into the navigation computer. Your father wants to see you." 

The two hugged one another again. "Thanks, Star… Or, rather, Marcus was it?" 

"Yeah, you've got it. Also, I want you to have a heart-to-heart with Theodore. You'll know what I mean when you guys talk. See if you can't figure out a way to bring him back with you. I've flown with him – he's not some sort of spy for Bowman." 

"I would certainly think not," Slippy replied. "Seriously, my son is no spy, that's for sure. I'll see you guys shortly. If Amanda wakes up, tell her I went to check on Teddy and see dad. I won't be _too_ long." He turned to Falco and walked out of the medical bay with the avian, who immediately began filling him in on everything he missed as of late. 

Vivian sat down next to her mother and ran her fingers through the motionless woman's hair with a heart-felt sigh. "I'll stay here on night detail. Go ahead and get some sleep guys – it's getting really late." She turned to Fara and offered a slight smile. "We've got a full complement of pilots now. Not only that, the ship is larger… We have enough bedrooms that I won't need to share a room with you anymore. I'll stay in mom's room on her living room sofa." 

Fara offered her a soft smile. "No, keep the room. Pilots need a bed so they get the sleep required to fly at their best. I insist." 

Vivian nodded and offered a smile. She turned her attention back to her mother. "I'll call you guys on the intercom as _soon_ as the next one wakes up." She licked her lips then said, "I know she's going to take Grandpa's death very hard; it's awkward to even think about how long my Poppy has been gone. She's going to cry… I'm willing to wager that Mr. Fox will be upset, too. I'm glad I was the one to talk to Slippy about Mister Beltino… See, I took care of 

Mister B. for the last eight months, leading up to the attack on Fichina. He really wanted to see Slippy one last time before he passes away." 

Fara turned to Marcus, noted his stoic expression then reached for his paw. "Let's go talk – I want you relaxed before you sleep so you don't have any of those dreams." She nodded for the door. "Let's go. Stop worrying; Vivian will let us know as soon as they're up, okay?" 

Marcus nodded and the two left the room. Vivian Hare laid her head down upon her mother's forehead and closed her eyes for a moment. She drew in a deep breath, just inhaling the older woman's scent. The only _other_ member of the team to hover over Lucy was ROB. He seemed almost… _emotional_ in regards her return for some unknown reason. 

* * *

_An hour later…_

**Fox McCloud closed his right paw into a fist** then groaned softly. His wife's breathing came from the right and her scent comforted him. The scent of his crew was present but there was something or some_one_ else. He drew in a deep breath but couldn't quite place the familiar scent. His eyes snapped open and he sat up, coming face to face with Vivian Hare. His eyes widened and a grin tugged at the corner of his muzzle. "My goodness, you've grown." 

"Welcome back, Mister McCloud," she said in a soft voice. She stood up from her chair, approached him and offered a hug. Fox wrapped his arms around her and hugged her like a family member. He could hear soft sobbing against his shoulder and so he furrowed his brows but she was quick to explain herself. "I know how much my Poppy meant to you." 

"Yeah, your grandfather… he raised me. Did he…?" 

Vivian murmured against his shoulder, "He died in his sleep a few years ago, but I'm emotional – I'm not ready to tell mom when she wakes up. The first thing she'll ask me is, '_How is poppa_?'" 

Fox simply held her in silence. After a few minutes, he gently pried her from his arms and brushed her ears back from her face. "Vivian, your mother is a strong person. She knows he was getting up there in age. I know she'll mourn him but she understands it's a part of life." Fox did his best to bottle his pain but the tears still welled up in his eyes. He blinked them away and relaxed his body with a soft sigh. "Krystal is going to be very upset; he considered her a second daughter – she became very close to him while spending a lot of time with Lucy. How did Star take it?" 

"He cried when it happened then he moved in with Bill for a while and…" She ran her paws over her face, wiped her eyes then sat down on his bunk, facing towards Krystal. "A lot has changed in the last six years. I'm going to call him down here in just a minute – he's probably asleep right now. But there's someone else who wants to talk to you, first." 

"Who is it?" Fox tilted his head. Vivian lifted a paw and gestured for him to wait then walked to the ship intercom. She pressed three buttons, simply said that Fox was now awake then turned to face him. McCloud tilted his head then furrowed his brows. "If it's not Star then who is it?" 

"You'll see," she replied and approached him. "A lot has changed in six years. By the way, he legally changed his name to _Marcus_ McCloud. I want to tell you everything but it's just not my place. Please call for me should anyone else wake up, but for right now… if you'll pardon me." She offered Fox another soft, somewhat sad smile then stepped out of the sickbay. 

Fox glanced over the rest of his crew then looked over at his wife with a gentle smile. He stared fondly, just watching her breathe. He slipped from his bed then reached to adjust her covers. He ran his fingers through her hair and kissed the side of her face, taking a deep breath to inhale her scent. 

"...You really look like you're in love." The familiar feminine voice floated through the air and hit his brain like a ton of bricks. Fox glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widened and his jaw slowly parted. Fara Phoenix stood in the doorway wearing a purple leotard, green sweat pants and shoulder-length sandy hair. She reached her right paw across her torso and closed her fingers around the backside of her left forearm. Her awkward stance did little to sway his confused eyes from the rest of her body. She cleared her throat then said, "Yes, I look young for my age – Fox I just wanted to start by telling you that I'm happy for you." 

Fox glanced over his shoulder at Krystal then looked back to Fara in complete disbelief. "I… you're alive!" He leered at her uncomprehendingly. "But I was at your funeral." 

"Fox," she approached him and captured his left paw, able to feel his wedding band beneath her fingertips. "To placate my angry parents, Corneria put me into suspended animation because of the extent of my injuries. They put me under on Eladard at a University Hospital laboratory and woke me when they felt comfortable with being able to save my life." 

McCloud took her by the forearms and looked into her eyes. "For years all I wanted to do is tell you that I'm sorry I sent you to your death. I was crushed; I went for years in denial. I broke off my engagement with Krystal at one point, because I was afraid I'd be sending _another_ loved one to die. Because_ I_ was still in denial, I hurt _her_ really bad – I just never knew how to cope and ruined multiple relationships because of that fear and…" 

"Shh," she lifted her paw and placed it upon his lips. "I finished that mission ahead of schedule. I ran a side job for Corneria and _that_ is where I was injured. It had nothing to do with _you_. I _needed_ to tell you that, because I wanted you to know you've _never_ sent a pilot to their death. I can't have you feeling guilty for something you never did." Her fingertip moved from his lips so that her padded palm covered the side of his muzzle in an endearing way.

Fox backed away from her touch and sat down on the mattress besides his wife. "Fara, it's been almost three decades." He placed his left paw upon his wife's hip. "I've got a family now and…" 

Fara placed her paws on her hips. "Fox McCloud – I've been awake for five years. I read about your marriage and your family in history books and had a lot of time on my paws to learn about it. There wasn't a lot for me to do after I woke up. I'm on your son's team, now that my military contract has been up since the year he was born." She grinned then shook her head. "You've aged well. I read somewhere that you were a little shy around women… and it made me _laugh_. You were so outgoing around me… what the heck happened?" 

"Everything felt natural at the time. You and I were young and when you died, I changed. But things are different now. I'm married and I'm happy. I'm sorry." 

"Why are you apologizing?" Fara approached the opposite side of Krystal's bed. "She's beautiful – I refuse to be jealous. Seriously, Fox… I've moved on, too. I promise. He treats me well and he's intelligent. He's about three years _younger_ than me, but he has beautiful, unique eyes and strong, firm paws. He gives me butterflies with his proximity – hopefully you're happy for _me_, too." 

Fox appeared completely relieved. "I am! We can still be friends, right? I've always respected you as a pilot and I know you'll keep my boy out of danger if he's working with you. Who's your mate?" 

Fara drew in a deep, slow breath, and said, "Marcus McCloud. Don't be upset – I don't want you to feel awkward, either. Things between us are complicated and working through them has brought us closer; it just sort of happened." 

Fox opened his muzzle to speak but nothing came out. In a twisted sort of way, it made sense. She was in her twenties and to him, it only seemed obvious that she'd be better off with a young McCloud. However, he struggled to find words. "How… are things complicated?" 

"You're a grandfather," replied Fara. "It should be Marcus telling you, not me. He wanted Vivian to wake him if anyone else woke, but he needs his sleep because we want to fly against the Venom defense parameter tomorrow. The mother is _Violet Lombardi_. Falco has information on the child as well as a photograph… I think he's still awake if you want to catch up with him and learn about your grandson more. Needless to say, Falco has been very calm and cool about all of this. Listen, I don't want this to be awkward for you or anyone else. I _also _do not want to be some joke associated with the McCloud family name. I told Marcus we're going to keep our relationship private in the face of the public eye." 

"I…" Fox placed his right paw behind his head and blinked at her. "I need time to let this sink in. But when this all blows over, I'm going to retire with my wife and settle down. Don't wake up Star, I really just want a little time to sort out all my feelings so that when I talk to him… there won't be any emotional complications. I appreciate you giving me the heads up. I, uh… As far as you and Star…" 

"I don't need your blessing to spend my time with Marcus. Yeah, it would be really damn awkward to have you as a father-in-law. Don't think I haven't considered that." 

Fox looked down. "I look at you, almost thirty years your senior, and all I see is a little girl. Don't be offended; you'll understand at my age, too. I could never be attracted to someone thirty years younger. You're a fantastic pilot, an intelligent woman and you're beautiful. I…" Fox closed his left paw overtop of his wife's left paw with his lower back against her hip. He looked down at the floor, dropped his right paw by Krystal's shoulder then shrugged at the fennec. "Have you and, uhm, _Marcus_ consecrated your relationship yet?" 

Fara cocked her head. "No." She thought better on her concise reply and added, "It's far too early to go that far – I'm not nineteen anymore. I make better decisions now." 

"I didn't mean it like that," said Fox in a firm voice. He shook his head. "I'm not going to stop you two. He has good taste and he is lucky to hold your affections. But like I said, I need a little time to let this sink in. I'm a bit overwhelmed right now, all right?" He frowned at her awkward expression then said, "You, uh, look good with the shoulder-length hair." He saw her furrowed brows then shrugged. "I don't know; what else am I supposed to say? Part of me feels like this conversation isn't even appropriate. I'm _fifty-four_ years old, Fara! You're dating my son, who is now a grown man… but I've not seen him since he was still a teenager, so I've not yet acclimated myself to how I should act… okay? The last time I saw him, I was still raising him and telling him what to do with his life, you know? I will be _fine_, I promise… I just need some time to let this sink in, first."

Fara looked down. Her tail drooped, nearly tucked between her ankles at this point. "I know, you already said that," she replied in a very soft voice. "In the course of about one month, I've inadvertently fallen in love with him. It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Four weeks ago, he was a boy… but things changed. Now, when I look in his eyes, I'm looking into the eyes of a man. Wait until you see him fly – he's a born leader. He's beautiful." 

Fox listened to her speak. The emotions painted on her face and the tone of her voice said it all. He couldn't help but be moved in a way. "I love him unconditionally because he's my son. I just want him to be happy. And if you make him happy, then I'm_ glad_ you're in his life, Fara. But, for right now, I just need some time to sort out my feelings, emotions and all of that other stuff. If it's not too much trouble, could I be alone for a little bit?" 

Fara stood there, eyes wide, for just a moment. "Yes, of course." She turned for the door and left sickbay. 

Vivian stood in the hall, holding one of her father's cigars in her right paw. She frowned. "How did he take it?" 

Fara cut her gaze to the left, burning a metaphorical hole in the bulkhead then sighed. "I'm graceful under the fire of an enemy's gun, but I acted like a fool in front of _him_." She took a deep breath then ran her fingers back through her headfur. "I threw it all at him; everything at one time, without even considering his feelings. He just found out that Peppy is gone, he's a grandfather _and_ I'm falling for his son… _all at once_. He doesn't even know that Corneria's Capital is under a pile of rubble, yet. I can't imagine what he's going through. What do _you_ think?" 

"Fara, I've seen the way Marcus' eyes light up around you. From what I've heard, he hasn't felt that way since Violet… And the way Crimson explains it, he seems to be even happier _now_ than he was back then. Everything is happening synonymously right now. Like Mister Fox said, give him a little time. Marcus' father has a different mindset than when he was eighteen. At this age, he's worried about retiring so he can live on a beach with his feet up… or whatever old people like to do. Did you tell him that you were a Black Operations agent back before you were in hibernation?" 

"Hibernation," Fara scoffed. "That's the perfect word for it, huh? No, I didn't tell him. I'd like to adhere to his wishes for a while. I just hope he doesn't _say_ or _do_ anything that might make Marcus feel uncomfortable… or awkward in any way. I shouldn't have said _anything_ just yet. I jumped the gun and now I feel awful." 

"He had to find out eventually." Vivian offered the fennec a soft hug. "You look like you needed this."

Phoenix wrapped her arms around the younger lapin in return. "Thanks, I think I did," Fara said in reply. After a short moment, she patted Vivian on the shoulder and smiled softly. "I'd better check on Marcus. I hope things go smoother when his mother wakes up. I've schmoozed with the rich and the famous as a little girl with an air of confidence… but for some reason, I'm nervous about meeting Krystal McCloud. Butterflies – a stomach full of angry butterflies." 

"What do you think the future holds for us, after all of this blows over?" Vivian's question posed an irresistible urge for the fennec. 

Fara tilted her head and walked to the door. "I would hope that Marcus finishes his final year in the academy. Then, with any luck, He will take the reins of team StarFox and life will go on the way it should. Fox already told me he wishes to retire when everything is settled."

"Teddy and I felt comfortable here ever since we arrived on GreatFox. Even Mister Lombardi seems at home flying with the three of us. I'm on my grandfather's mercenary team – I couldn't be happier." She cleared her throat then said, "I'm going to have ROB take over for the night. I'm getting tired." 

Fara offered a nod and a smile. "Get some rest, pilot. You're good in a cockpit – we need you well rested. Besides, you've been awake since before we found Fox's ship… you _must_ be exhausted." 

"I am, but I have a feeling I'll only be able to sleep a few hours. I want to try and be there when mom wakes up. Goodnight, Miss Phoenix." 

The fennec chuckled softly. "Just _Fara_. We've been a team for a few days now, not to mention roommates… Falco hates being called 'Mister' and I don't really care for _'Miss Phoenix_' either. Good night, Vivian." She headed through the door at the end of the hall. 

"Goodnight, Fara." Vivian headed back to her room. 

* * *

A/N: _Okay, I've already started on chapter 28. In it, Krystal, Lucy and Amanda will wake up. Also, Fox and Marcus will get to talk father-to-son – man-to-man. Also, Fara will speak to Krystal in person at some point. We'll find out what happens to Theodore, what's going on between Dash and Andrew… ALL that good stuff!_

_Finally, I think I want to transition Falco towards the younger StarFox team. Not just because it's canon, but because I have a few ideas on what I'd like to do with our heroic team in the sequel. Crimson will talk to Fox in the next chapter and it's possible that Marcus will convince his father to fly a patrol with him, just so he can fly alongside his old man, prior to the future attack they're planning against the Venom front line. We still have to find out what's going on with Bliss and Dash, what's the big deal about whoever Wolf married and everything else!_

_And what of Violet and the baby? Guess we'll find out everything in due time, huh? _

_BY THE WAY, I've gotten THIRTEEN REVIEWS on chapter 26 in just a few days, PLUS an additional TWO reviews on chapter 1, shortly after posting chapter 26… that means SIXTEEN PEOPLE REVIEWED THIS STORY after my long hiatus… that's a record. Twelve of those sixteen reviews happened in twenty-four hours! THAT is a record for me. I appreciate that!_

_Hopefully I've not disappointed anyone! Have I? I'm just curious! _

_One more thing, one of my readers was playing SSBB on his Wii when his pet knocked it over and broke the system. Let's all take a moment of silence for a fallen comrade, a casualty of chance… an injured Nintendo Wii. _

_Okay, now I'm off to finish replaying through Wing Commander 2, Secret Ops -1. I'm playing through the entire franchise, save for Armada and the Privateer games. Why? Because I'm a nerd!_

_:D_

_-KiT_


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: **_I've gotten more replies, feedback and straight up MORE REVIEWS on the last two chapters than I think I've ever received. I mean, I had over ten reviews to both 26 and 27, each after only twenty-four hours from their posting time. Usually it takes a few days for that to happen. I'm flattered! You guys humble me. _

_Also, the beginning of chapter 27 came straight out of StarFox Command. The conversation, the situation, the way Krystal suddenly changed from one uniform to the other. Sorry if some people felt that dialogue was hokey – blame Nintendo! LOL_

_I'm now setting the stage to end this story and lead into the sequel. _

_Most likely, this story will run to a thirtieth chapter. I'll work more on Reflections of Fox McCloud, Peppy, Spy Cooper, CV:Claws Of Fate, etc. But yes, Marcus' life story has been popular enough to begin a sequel. _

_So what do I call it? Reflections of a prodigal son? Reflections of Marcus McCloud? It's going to be a reflections-series story, because I'm using my older stories as the historical background and whatnot. _

_I also have people asking me to do stories about Falco, Wolf, etc. I wanted to do a short story to encompass all of that. I wanted to begin with Fox and Krystal's engagement, lead into the mission that causes Fox to push her away… follow Krystal over to being recruited by Corneria's Air Guard, befriending Bill, living with Lucy and Peppy while Lucy Hare graduates from school and gets a new job as an Astrophysicist teacher and, of course, her relationship with Panther, which eventually dissolves in a short time. I'll touch up on the lead-in to what she learns about Andross' machine on Titania and how she and Peppy discover it. At some point, she'll leave Team StarFox and go BACK to Panther (as she does in the initial ending for SF:Command) then I'll detail a few days back with StarWolf… only for her to change her mind… She'll gather her things, apologize to Panther and give him closure then head to Corneria and tell Fox to meet her there. The two will embrace adjacent to the runway as in the first screen of the "Marcus" ending from SF:Command. Amanda will join the team. Yes, I'm combining the endings because they're not chronologically dated. Who is to say the team doesn't get back together for a while THEN Fox retires THEN Marcus is born? There ya go. So, any ideas on what I should name Marcus' sequel? I might just keep it simple so people know what it is. But any and all clever ideas will be considered! _

Chapter –_**Twenty-Eight**_-

**Bliss O'Donnell pressed her paws together** and cracked her knuckles. She cut her gaze from left to right then leaned against a metallic bulkhead in Dash Bowman's command center. "Who'd have known you had everything put together in this way?" She folded her arms.

"You're upset," Dash replied.

"What're you talking about?" Bliss cut her gaze back to the rest of the bridge, simply counting the heads of his officers and enlisted personnel. Her gaze shifted again when the first mate entered the bridge from the other side. She recognized the species as an Anglar. "Of all the species you could hire, why choose an Anglar?" The man made eye contact with her and she smirked. "Yeah, I'm racist – deal with it, you tubby little chode."

Dash ignored her question regarding the amphibious Venom native. "You won't even make eye contact with me." His words made her laugh. The vixen offered Bowman a quirky half-cocked brow. He returned a similar expression then said, "What?"

"I'm a _lesbian_. If I made eye contact with you every few seconds, Carey wouldn't appreciate that. Look, I can handle my father. He's probably proud of me for following _his_ rules of business.

"And your mother?"

Bliss shrugged. "What of her?"

"What of the _fact_ she's related to Fox McCloud?"

O'Donnell looked away. "We don't talk about that _rumor_. Even _he_ doesn't talk about that. It's not even common knowledge that there are… like, you know… goddamn Reinard family members left; they didn't want to be hunted down back in the days of the Lylat wars. Just drop it. It pisses off McCloud that Crimson and I exist. Hell, it's probably the only reason my father married her – just to get under Fox's fur. I, for one, see that relationship for what it is… a sham. My mother wants to be rebellious in the shadow of the McCloud and Reinard line… My father wants to have his way with a female, supposedly related to Fox McCloud, just to piss off his nemesis. You think it's warm, fuzzy love behind those nuptials?"

"No wonder you grew into a lesbian." Dash folded his arms. "So, are you telling me there has been no positive DNA proof that you're related to the McCloud family in _any_ way?"

Bliss shrugged again. "No one would want to take that test, Bowman. And I would deny these rumors it if anyone asked – so, by all means, _please _doubt it. How the hell did you know about that, anyways?"

"I have my sources. Yes, I heard even Fox McCloud denied it." Dash grinned at her. "So, there you go, it's probably _not_ true. But I know the rumor had to piss him off."

"I'll make it easy on you," said Bliss. "If you asked my mother, she would say she's never even met that arrogant self-righteous 'heroic' arse. If you asked Fox McCloud, he would tell you he's never heard of "Nicky." Yet Nichole J. O'Donnell makes McCloud cringe every time she flew around him."

He abruptly changed the subject. "So, you're not afraid to betray your father _or_ your mother… but what about your brother?" Dash shook his head and put a hand out, palm up. "I need to know I can trust my people."

"I'm sure your sources told you that he and I _never_ got along, save the very short period while flying together during the Fichina fiasco, a few weeks ago."

"Yes," he said with a slow nod. "And that ended when he left to return to Marcus' ship." He hooked a thumb at a nearby door. "Meet me down in the hold. I want to show you something, now that I finally trust you."

Bliss tilted her head. "Should I get Carey on the way down there?"

"Not yet, I have to research her and make sure I can trust her, too. See you there." He waited until Bliss left the room then turned to his first officer and, in a soft voice, said, "Are you sure she contacted her brother yesterday? I want to see the encoded data log to be sure. I don't want to kill her until we've made use of her fiancé's brain. She'll help us rebuild my grandfather's gravity bomb."

The Anglar first mate offered a silent nod. He waited for Dash to conclude his speech then said, "Zizan also wants revenge against the McCloud family line. He promises me that the remaining Anglar population has come together to finish building your secret battle fleet. Even the mainland Venom lizards do not know of what we've constructed beneath the Venom Sea. These warships rival even those of the ones we constructed twenty-five years ago. I feel it's best that the O'Donnell girl does not find out about that, in case she's able to contact her brother one last time."

Dash nodded with a slight grin. "And you've dampened the communication's grid for our ship? She won't be able to get anything but static? I'll tell her that we're experiencing a strange interference from the cargo." He walked to a computer terminal and activated a monitor. The visual held an image of a large metallic box, tractored far behind his ship. "She won't know the difference."

"She may suspect a lie, since she got the first communication out," said the first officer.

"I'll make sure to tell her something like, '_we've brought some of the metal aboard to analyze it in our lab_'." Dash turned for the double doors leading off the bridge. "That will be sufficient. You're dismissed from duty until your morning shift. Tell Zizan that everything is according to schedule so far. I want my delivery of ships in exactly thirteen months. That way, when StarFox attacks the front line, they think Venom's fleet is depleted. They'll attack Andrew's forces blindly, since our current ships are designed and painted to look like his forces."

The first officer chortled with a smirk. "Your plan of having them whittle down our enemy was a brilliant one. Once Andrew's forces are crushed and StarFox is tired and vulnerable, we'll have galactic superiority. Does it worry you that members of the old team have returned?"

"Not in the least. This new gravity bomb won't be as forgiving as the last." Bowman walked across the bridge, re-approached the exit doors then stopped to glance over his shoulder at the first officer. "It will use their own G-diffusing equipment to crush them by causing a malfunction in their gravity-diffuser sensors… Then Venom will rise against Corneria as foretold in the prophecy."

The amphibian-like creature knelt to one knee, bringing his right fist to his chest and announced, "Rest well, my liege. You'll make a fantastic new Emperor for _all_ of Venom, both Anglar _and_ Lizard-kind." He lifted his head to Bowman but lowered his eyes to the floor in reverence. Dash dismissed the man with but a wave of his hand.

* * *

**McCloud** stepped out of his room and walked back to the medical ward. He peered in through the door but his wife never moved an inch. He sighed then turned around to leave but gasped, standing face to face with Crimson O'Donnell. Fox studied the boy then face-faulted.

"Awkward, huh?" Crimson stuffed his paws into his pockets. "Your son and I fly together now. We're best friends. Don't worry, I didn't _tell_ him… I'm sure you're just as embarrassed about it as _my_ parents. Whether or not Wolf O'Donnell's offspring are a huge mistake or they're meant to be, one thing is for sure… I'm here and I'm _your_ offspring's best friend. I hope that's not a problem."

"It's a hard pill to swallow," replied Fox. "I just came from an alternative universe where my wife never married me. Instead, she went on the warpath. So it's possible I'm in the wrong place again."

"That's fine, don't accept the truth. My mother denies she even knows what you look like. It's stupid – childish, really."

"What do you want from me?" asked Fox. "Do you want me to act like some sort of _uncle_ or something? What can you expect? Wolf and I never got along. We never will, and you're a part of him."

"He's an idiot," said Crimson. "He's judgmental of me and doesn't know the first thing about being a father. To him, everything is business and power. I'm the little rebel of the family. I don't care what kind of ill will you have towards him – I fly for team StarFox on my own merits. I don't need your blessing or Bill Gray's approval. Star is my boy and we look out for one another. I don't _want_ you acting like some sort of uncle… or even an older brother. I don't even want you acting like a second cousin twice removed. I just want you to accept that he and I are friends because denial brings you down to the level of my parents. And I'll be frank: I have some pretty high expectations of you, man."

Fox studied his face again then offered a paw. "A friend of my son is, at the very least, a friend of mine. If Star can trust you, then I can trust you. I'm sorry that Wolf deprived you of a better father figure if that's the case. But be as that it may, I prefer if I continued to deny your mother exists the same way she denies I exist. It's for the best."

Crimson never pulled his paws from his pockets. "Whatever. No one's even sure which of the many rumors about you two are true. Hell, some say you guys were raised together or that she's from the Reinard bloodline. Some say one of you was adopted. Others say you guys grew up in an orphanage together after your parents died. The one that gets under her fur the most is the handful of people that suspect you guys are full-blooded siblings. The one that kinda pisses _me_ off is the one where James McCloud knocked up some broad because he was lonely when Vixy Reinard was killed. Who knows, maybe that one is true, too. Whatever."

"…As if." Fox reached to ruffle the boy's headfur. "The last time I saw you in person, your whole body could easily fit in my palm. Your sister, too."

"Yeah, well… nice meeting you. If you're looking for '_Marcus_', he's in his room, trying not to have nightmares. My suggestion is a simple one. Go wake him up and fly with him. That's real to him. He's pretty bent out of shape about not being _allowed_ to get into a cockpit and fly alongside of you, six years ago. Do him a favor and fly with him, _right now_. Don't worry, we'll contact you if Mrs. McCloud wakes up."

"Fara said I should let him sleep." Fox fidgeted for a moment then folded his arms to keep his composure.

Young O'Donnell glanced at a watch on his wrist. "It's now been a solid eight hours since he went to bed." He shrugged then hooked a thumb over his shoulder. "In case you forgot the way to his room, it's that way. I'm going to lie back down. Let's keep things simple between us, huh? Which do you prefer, _Mister Fox_ or _Mister McCloud_?"

"Either is fine – Crimson, right?"

"Good memory." He ran his fingers back through the stark red bangs above his eyes then sighed. "I didn't mean to come off at you like that. You're less of an idiot than my clueless father or my hedonistic mother."

Fox glared at him for a moment then nodded. "It would probably be best if we just didn't mention them. I know you have every right to insult them both but… I don't feel right bashing her behind her back."

Crimson chuckled and stepped aside. "Fair enough – have a good night. Thanks for coming back; we're going to need your help. Things are pretty desperate right now." The half-breed lupine stalked off down the hallway.

McCloud glanced back into sickbay, stared at his wife for a few moments then headed towards his son's quarters.

* * *

**With a soft sigh,** Fox McCloud leaned back on his bed in the old quarters he shared with his wife six years prior. Save for her staff, everything was where he'd remembered it. He cut his head back to a monitor in the wall and frowned at the visual of Slippy. "When will we know for sure?"

Slippy's voice, high pitched and annoying, caused a soft buzzing to come from the speakers in the wall. "Tomorrow. They're theoretical tests and my father is pretty confident in them. He says it's irrefutable proof. He used them on a fur sample from the woman who died on Fichina. It proved that she wasn't from _this_ universe. He said if my skin tissue matches, it proves that we _are_ from this universe. Do you _really_ think we might be in the wrong dimension again?"

"It's very possible we're in one that's similar to ours but with subtle differences. I mean… I just…" Fox sighed again and shook his head. "Fara… is dating my _son_? And what will his mother think about his name change? She followed the advice of the Oracle."

"Isn't the Oracle a Cerinian myth, though?"

Fox frowned at the screen. "You and I grew up together, and I trust you," said McCloud. "So this stays between us… but right before I woke up, I dreamt that Krystal and I spoke to this… Oracle. When Krys wakes up, I want to see if she remembers that, or if I just dreamed up the whole thing."

Slippy coughed into his hand to change the subject. "Theodore will get a speedy hearing on Katina. My father and I still have some sway. The evidence against him is a simple video recording from Wolf O'Donnell's daughter to the General. It's the word of an outlaw's daughter, and it just so happens that her word doesn't exactly incriminate Theodore, _just_ Dash. I spoke with him an hour ago on the p-Proteus. He's angry that Bowman misled him and says he _believes_

Wolf O'Donnell's daughter, because he trusts Crimson O'Donnell. He even said that Bliss and Crimson helped to rescue him from a car accident on Corneria – something about d-d-driving right off a cliff and into the sea."

"I find it highly awkward to know that my son's right-hand pilot is the O'Donnell boy." Fox ran his fingers through his headfur and muttered under his breath. He looked down for a moment then back up at the screen. "Slippy, what if this _is_ our home universe? Peppy is dead, Star has an illegitimate son, not even named _McCloud_ and then this whole business with Fara being alive? Not to mention Nicky's flea-bag children flying with Star? I just… I don't know how to handle _any_ of this."

"F-Fox, look at the b-b-bright side. Seriously, man. All of our children are alive. Andross never made the comeback we expected after suddenly attacking us with that gravity bomb. It's as though he vanished _with_ us, because no one ever saw him after that attack. If the biggest threat is Andrew Oikonny making one last attempt on the system, then our last job will be an easy one. You can retire like you wanted and everything will be f-fine."

"…You're right." Fox stood up from the bed and began pacing in front of the wall-mounted screen. "All the guilt I had on my shoulders after Fara died… and it was a farce. She said she finished the mission way ahead of schedule but was fatally injured while doing a side job for Corneria. Now I come back to _this_? How can I accept that? How can Star not feel awkward with his father's first serious _girlfriend_?"

"That's all it was," replied Slippy. "Geeze, Fox, if a guy in his mid-forties walks into a bar and picks up a twenty-one year old… he buys her a drink, they make out… hang out a few times, then end the relationship because he works things out with the mother of his twenty year-old son… but then that son meets this girl at a party and _they_ hit it off… yeah, the father would feel awkward when that girl shows up at his dinner table, a few months later. '_Meet my new girlfriend, mom and dad!_' I'm sure both the father and the girl are thinking, _'This is strange_' but is it the father's place to interject his feelings into the romance of his son and the girl? Yeah, I know you're g-going through something far more complicated, but don't jump the gun."

"Slippy, she's now _thirty years_ younger than me! I had my tongue in her muzzle once, and now Star has _his_ tongue in her muzzle, thirty years later? Don't you find that as weird as I do?"

Slippy cringed. "Fox, she's not a piece of meat. It's not like me biting off the same piece of fruit that Falco bit, then finding out he didn't brush that d-day. Are you jealous that both you and Marcus have Fara's cooties? Get a grip. It's weird, but it's their lives. I have an idea…"

Fox stopped his pacing and turned to the monitor. "Go ahead."

Slippy smirked, seeing he held his friend's attention again. "Wake up Marcus and hug him. Don't think about Fara, because you _know_ he can sense that stuff… just go hug him. Then tell him you want to go and fly side by side as father and son, because you guys never got the chance to do that enough while he was a teenager… go run a patrol and scout the area opposite of the one he flew earlier this evening. I think it's been a full night since he went to bed, he should be well rested."

"Funny, you're not the first person to make that suggestion to me…" Fox nodded in agreement to the idea. "Everyone _else_ is asleep. I suppose an _early_ morning patrol would be a good segue into bridging the gap between us. Heck knows we have six years of space to make up for and… from the way things look they're going to need our help to stop Venom once and for all."

"That's the spirit," replied Slippy with a grin. "I hope you and he get along better than Theodore and…" Slippy trailed off and frowned. "Don't ask, it's really complicated."

"How about giving me the short version?" Fox sat down on the edge of the nearby mattress and tilted his head.

"Theodore and Vivian finished the Academy. If I'm not mistaken, Marcus – pardon me for using his new name, I just want to respect his wishes – never went back to finish his last year. But anyhow, Teddy was picked on in school because StarFox had such a popular public image that everyone knew about us. And I've made a name for myself as the team idiot. The kids teased him, so he felt like he had to fly against my reputation as the team screw up. Apparently, I was only a StarFox member because you and I were childhood friends. They brainwashed him."

Fox balked. His brows furrowed and his jaw dropped. "…What? Slippy, you're not just a mechanical guru, you're a _very_ brave pilot."

Slippy lifted his hands. "Marcus told him how I raced out against Andross in an Arwing the day of the attack, six years ago. He says he feels like he has to be _deprogrammed_ from four years of torture in school, but some part of him does believe in me. Now I feel like _I_ have to f-f-fly against this fake reputation to prove myself to him."

Fox looked down. "That's got to be rough, man. Flying against your own son's preset notions just to earn his respect so he'll look up to you the way he did was he was a child…"

"You're not the only one going through something uncomfortable right now," Slippy reminded. "He even said that some young pilots told him he was adopted, because there was no way his father could ever get a real girl. That's an insult to my _wife_. Kids can be cruel to one another these days."

"That's harsh." Fox ran his fingers back through his headfur again and shrugged. "You're right, though… I'll go and talk to Star."

"…Marcus," said Slippy. "He needs your respect just the way my son needs mine, right now. Respect and understanding… right?"

"You never cease to amaze me," Fox told his friend. "Every once in a while, you say something so incredibly brilliant that it takes me by surprise. I'm going to fuel our Arwings then wake him up. I hope the rest of the team wakes up soon."

"I want you to call me on my personal communicator the _instant_ Amanda wakes up. Have _her_ call me. Just so I won't worry." Slippy tilted his head and chuckled in an awkward sort of way. "How, uh, is ROB acting around Lucy?"

"You noticed that, too?" Fox cleared his throat and said, "He's hovered around the medical bay, even before Vivian went to bed. Have you ever heard of a robot obsessing over a woman?"

Slippy offered a dubious look over the monitor. "Are you kidding? I remember when he acted almost depressed while she was with Vivian's daddy."

Fox nodded, remembering clearly how his inherited, aging piloting droid acted. "And how he lightened up when Vivian's father died. It was strange… not disrespectful, but he tried acting… compassionate around her. She said he was just being sweet, but I'm glad I wasn't the _only_ one to notice it."

"I have a theory about it," Slippy murmured. "But I can't prove it."

Fox glanced at a wall clock then said, "Lay it on me."

Toad shrugged, providing a mere glimpse of his shoulders at the bottom of the screen. "When the Aparoids were crawling all over the GreatFox while Peppy and ROB were rushing to the escape pod… leading up to the Queen's destruction, one of them may have tried to take over ROB's body. They controlled machinery with ease, after all."

Fox cocked a single eyebrow. "So they gave him a little taste of consciousness and real thought patterns… and these emotions are his way of evolving?"

Slippy nodded. "But they never finished plugging him into their hive-mind, because we destroyed the Queen Aparoid. It gave him the ability to feel, say, _attraction_ to Lucy, maybe?"

"Why didn't you ever say anything about this before?"

"I can't back up my theory. I j-j-just noticed him acting weird from time to time. I'm glad to see he's still around though… I thought for sure the GreatFox cruiser was destroyed. I understand that ROB deactivated BOB-128 already and copied all the data to his own memory banks."

Fox tapped a pensive finger against his lower lip in thought. "So now, ROB sees Lucy for the first time in six years… guess you and I aren't the only ones to have awkward drama upon return to our Lylat. I wonder if ROB even knows this about himself."

"It might not even be true, F-Fox. Who knows, Peppy could have programmed ROB, years ago, to be protective of the Hare line; ROB could be acting weird or obsessive and not know why. I'd have to look at his subroutines on a computer during a diagnostic." Slippy turned his attention to something off the camera then said, "My father is ready for me. I'll contact you soon."

"See you then," replied Fox. The channel closed.

* * *

**The door to Marcus' quarters slid open** and Fox stepped inside. He sniffed the air but Fara's scent came only from a jacket in the living room. Fox thought about where she might be then snapped his fingers and whispered, "Night watch." He walked to the bedroom and pressed a button on the wall. The doors slid apart.

McCloud stepped into his son's den and closed his eyes tightly. After a moment, he opened them with dilated pupils. He made his way to the bed, sat down on the edge, and looked over the dark outline of Marcus' form. He inhaled deeply then smiled. "My son," he mouthed. His paw moved to the boy's face, tracing his strong jaw line to the side of his head. Young Marcus murmured, barely stirring.

Fox grinned inwardly, remembering one of the playful ways he used to wake his boy at an early hour. He placed a finger against Marcus' nose; his grin broadened expectantly. The younger fox snorted then opened his eyes just slightly with a grunt.

"Rise and shine, Wing Commander." Fox's tone was fatherly and personal – deeper than normal.

Marcus' eyes snapped wide open and he sat up, launching himself into his father's arms. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry so he settled on holding his breath for a moment. He felt a paw slide through his headfur, another patting his left shoulder. The younger pilot sighed, took a breath then sighed again and said, "Welcome home, pops."

"There is plenty of time for pleasantries from here on out… It's time we start catching up on the important stuff right now. Let's go fly together – just us. Your ship is in the upper flight deck, on the cruiser section. Mine is down below in the carrier section. I'll meet you in space. How's about ten minutes sound?"

"There won't be any giant floating monkey heads out there."

Fox snorted in semi-amusement. "You sound disappointed by that."

"I sometimes think I could have helped to make the difference… just one more pilot to turn the tide."

Fox sat back and put his palms on the boy's face, locking their gaze. "There's nothing any of us could have done. The blast radius was so big, it took the carrier, it took all our fighters; hell, it took everything. Had those fighters not chased the escape pod with full afterburner, you guys would have been pulled along for the ride. I doubt an escape pod would have survived the gravity, though. Even the bioweapon was pulled to the other side. The gravity crushed it to death."

Marcus nodded then slid out of bed and went for a shirt. "Meet you in space; I'll see you in ten minutes."

Fox grinned then slid off the bed. "Look, let me just say one quick thing about you and Fara…"

"You know?" Marcus turned to him then sensed the situation. "I didn't mean for this to be strange for you. Heck, her and I started getting close back when everyone thought you guys were dead."

"All I want to say is that I'll need some time to let it all sink in. So far, no one else has a problem with it but me. I'm not saying it's a problem, so much as… I mean, shoot; I'm still in shock that she's alive. Part of me thinks this must be another parallel universe like the one Kursed destroyed."

Marcus froze. "…She won't be going home to finish the job." His tone turned cold. "She's done terrorizing Lylat. Been there, done that; filed the paystub in our earnings ledger."

"You put Lylat first, Star. No one can say you're selfish." He tried to turn the short conversation back to something more positive. "I boned this reunion up so far, huh?"

Marcus offered a half chuckle, buttoning his shirt. "Yeah, first you talk about Fara then Kursed and finally you call me by that name I hate so much." He paused, smiled a bit then chuckled somewhat to put his father at ease. "Teach me how to lead Team StarFox. That's what you're here to do, right?"

Fox nodded and walked to the door. "See you in space, _Marcus_." He offered a weak grin then left the bedroom.

_Ten minutes later…_

**Marcus' fighter catapulted from the flight deck** of the GreatFox cruiser. Open space surrounded him on all sides and his father's Arwing glistened in the distant light of Solar. He punched the throttle and came alongside of Fox's ship then opened the radio com. "I'm still wearing your headset. Somehow, Peppy wound up with it and he gave it to me before he… you know."

"That belonged to _my_ father – it's way outdated." Fox chuckled then opened up the holographic visual bar above the HUD. He tilted his head in curiosity then furrowed his eyebrows. "Are those sunshades…?"

"…Yeah. That's another long story. They fit me pretty good, though."

Fox broke into soft laughter. "Those belonged to my father, too. You sure you're okay with all these hand-me-downs?"

"Do me a favor and hand me down the GreatFox, Rob and the skills to use it all."

Fox laughed again then beamed navigational coordinates to his son's fighter and put the throttle up all the way. "I saw you renewed the trademark papers. You left them on the desk in the office by the bridge. Paper work is the hardest thing – the rest comes natural." He glanced out of his cockpit and looked over the fully-joined GreatFox Flying Fortress then frowned. "Boy, the cruiser is a real patchwork job. I thought it would have been tiny pieces, though. Just the same, one missing gun and many un-polarized metal patches… how did you get it in space? I jettisoned the power core."

"I know I'm stating the obvious here but… Fara Phoenix is _rich_. On top of wealth, she's also very generous, if you know what I mean."

"Make sure you pay her back when you defeat Venom. Don't make her your sugar-momma. I mean it."

This time Marcus laughed. "We got our Arwings _free_. The team is going to write them off. She convinced the board of directors at Phoenix Enterprises to _buy_ Space Dynamics. They're going to design a brand new model of Arwing for us."

"Very nice turn of luck," returned the elder McCloud.

The two Arwing-II's raced through the inky void, side by side. The conversation continued as they darted, weaved and barrel rolled through the empty sector. "Did you see King Tricky walking around the ship?"

"Geeze, are you kidding?" Fox shook his head. "How did _he_ get involved in all of this?"

"Oh it's a mess," replied the younger vulpine pilot. He eased on his flight stick and tightened the formation. "We were in a rush to leave Sauria and follow Andrew. I let him tag along because I was clinging to things that reminded me of you and mom. I even lived with Bill Gray on Katina. We were roommates. Now he's General because of his advanced strategic tactical war skills. It's a temporary situation but it might last for a very long time."

Fox punched a few keys to open up his long-range sensors. "So you've got a General in the pocket, a contract with Space Dynamics for ships and hardware, you fixed up a fully gear-loaded ship from which you can launch an assault team, and you've got capable pilots behind you. You've renewed the team's legal status, renewed the team's license to operate as a business and you've combined a bounty hunting license with a mercenary license… have I left anything out?"

"I got my family back," said Marcus. "There is a lot to explain, though. I'll be honest, I'm a little nervous to throw all of this stuff at you so soon after you've woken up."

"You're talking about my infant grandson?" Fox's tone was firm but understanding. "Falco was asleep, so I spoke to Katt on a secure channel. We talked for almost an hour. Then I spoke to Crimson and vented to Slippy. Yeah, it's a lot all at once, but I'll handle it. That's what I do."

"I dreamt you'd show up one day and I'd be this big Lylat hero – saved the galaxy then you'd come back and be proud of me, you know? Sounds stupid, huh?"

"I _am_ proud of you!" Fox paused then suddenly said, "I see bogeys at the edge of the sensor scope… ready to dog fight side-by-side with your old man?"

Marcus' facial features lit up. "Let's go get'em!"

The Venom ships, separated into three delta squadrons, each escorted three freighters. Their Arwings closed to less than ten thousand klicks yet the Imperial fighters remained with their transporters. Marcus and his father closed to eight thousand but not a single fighter broke formation. The younger McCloud scanned the thought patterns of his enemies. "They have no idea… they're sitting ducks." They narrowed the gap to five thousand klicks. "I think they're shipping uniforms, flags, banners and small arms weapons. There's nothing here worth salvaging, dad."

"Well, there are twelve bogies total, the big boys should count as _two_ points, for a possible score of _fifteen points_. Ready? Set? GO!" Fox tapped his boost and his Arwing blew by.

Marcus grinned at his father's playfully competitive game and thumbed the afterburner button on his throttle bar. The fighter responded with fluid grace, racing towards the enemy. "I bet I'll get more than you," he chuckled. "You know I can follow an enemy fighter pilot and know his every move." He quickly dropped behind a fighter just as the escort formations were pulling apart. Marcus mashed his right thumb down on the new Arwing II's side-stick. Twin blasters ripped into the engine booster of his prey. "Space Dynamics told us that this Arwing IIc even outperforms your model."

The older vulpine grinned inwardly and thought to himself, '_Fighters don't fly themselves – it's all about the pilot_.' He knew his son would hear it. He cleared his throat over the radio. "Impress me," countered Fox over the line. He broke away from the junior McCloud and headed for another group. "Come to think of it, I've not used the ordinance on my fighter in six years. I hope this stuff still works." He launched a smart missile and pulled back on the stick.

The missile casing disappeared in the exhaust port of a transport ship with no immediate detonation. "Well… I guess that answers _that_ question. It seems that my…" Suddenly the transporter erupted in a massive explosion that destroyed one of the nearby fighters. "Woo! Two-for-one special!" He darted back around in the nimble Arwing, seeking out his next victim.

Marcus kept his focus on an enemy fighter less than one hundred meters in front of his nosecone. "Still too slow – I'm surprised I was the first on the scoreboard, pops." He fired frantically, clipping the wings of his second opponent. One of his shots scored a direct hit on the control stabilizer, sending the enemy into a tailspin. It arced about, coming face-to-face with Marcus' volley of blaster fire. The cockpit burst like a light bulb hitting the pavement, followed by the rest of the fighter blowing apart. Young McCloud continued to fire his forward mounted blasters, striking the belly of a distant fighter as it passed nearby the debris of his last kill. The twin cannons destroyed their mark with ease.

Fox McCloud's voice returned to the audio patch. "I see turrets on the middle transporter, keep his belly towards you."

"It's under control," replied Marcus. He pulled a tight loop, dropping down behind another fighter and opened fire, scoring several hits across the hull. He continued to mash down on his fire button, chewing through the shields then the polarized armored plating. Chunks of metallic debris flew off the fighter. Marcus dodged to the right just in time for a tailing enemy's shots to zip by.

He slammed on the brakes and the G-diffusing manifold expanded. The Arwing's stabilizers eased out from the body, designed to create drag in atmospheric flight – an automatic mechanical response. The enemy flew by, coming into Marcus' cone of fire. He shot at the nearest target then eased the stick, tearing into the damaged one, further off in the distance. Both erupted in a massive explosion.

Marcus glanced at his instrument panel so as not to be temporarily blinded. "What are these guys carrying that would create such a big boom?"

Fox, working on a second transporter, said, "Payload that packs a lot of punch, I'd wager. That makes for two transporters thus far." After a few short seconds, he corrected himself. "_One _fighter and_ two_ transporters, now."

Marcus moved behind the last two fighters in the vicinity while his father moved in for the kill on the last transport ship. The side-mounted turrets fired spastically in every direction but Fox's thoughts were on the ship's weakness… it was unprotected along the belly.

He opened fire on the defenseless section of hull, driving his shots into the phase shields. His grin broadened. "Just a little more," murmured Fox.

"Almost," whispered Marcus in reply, followed by, "That makes _seven_ fighters!" He barrel rolled through the debris then changed course for the only remaining fighter in the area.

Fox launched a Nova bomb towards his enemy. The unwitting last fighter flew between his ship and the transporter, inadvertently striking the Nova bomb in mid flight path. The weighty canister ripped a stabilizer strut from the fighter's body then continued forward to the transporter. It detonated as designed, wiping out both the last remaining transporter and the now-injured Venom fighter. "That makes _five_ kills," said Fox over the radio.

"Seven – told you I'd get more!" Marcus howled in victory.

"But three transporters, each worth two points, and two fighters worth one a piece… that's eight points, young man. Your _seven_ fighters are only worth _seven_ points." He winked at his son over the holo-bar above the Heads Up Display. "Yeah a kill score is worth bragging rights, but taking out the big ships, worth two fighters a piece, gives me a victory in points over you. And there is my first lesson to you on how to take over StarFox. Sometimes, Mercenaries are paid an amount per target. If you take out more high-dollar targets you'll make more money and, subsequently, do less work to earn it."

Marcus quickly did the math in his head. Three transporters equaled six points and the other two fighters brought his father's score to _eight_ even though the senior pilot only trashed five enemies. On the other hand, he killed _seven_ bogies, each worth one point. The pilot balked. "I had two more kills than you but… you're right, you won."

"Sometimes, the best strategy is to use your wing mates to clear the fighter spread so you can go in for the big bucks. Don't always just go straight for the jackpot, though… you don't want to make yourself a target for an enemy fighter by having your concentration elsewhere. That's the second lesson… clear a hole and make the path safe… _then_ have your way with the big birds. C'mon, let's return to the ship and I'll tell you more."

Marcus moved into formation alongside of his father's ship. "I'd appreciate that. Teach me how you think when you fight – obviously you've been doing it right all along or you wouldn't be alive."

Fox chuckled warmly over the audio patch. "You're too flattering. Let's go home and stretch." He grinned a bit then added, "Remember, land on the cruiser section – I'll set down on the carrier. Race you there!"

* * *

**Krystal McCloud** lifted her left paw and rubbed at her eyes. She sat up in bed then yawned with a slight curl to the tip of her tongue. She noted King Tricky asleep on the floor adjacent to her bunk and smiled softly. She turned to Vivian, who slept in a chair across the room, between Amanda Toad and Lucy. The younger rabbit closely resembled her mother.

The blue-furred vixen slid out of the sickbay bed and stretched, glancing at the date on a nearby digital medical chart. She gave a tug at her disheveled garment and wrinkled her nose at the thought of wearing the same clothes for two days in a row. She made a beeline for the bathroom and emerged from it several moments later. No one stirred. ROB sat on the other side of Lucy's bed, charging off an outlet in the wall. A single LED light illuminated on his chest, proof that his sensor hardware detected her movement. However, ROB offered no response.

Krystal glanced about the room then walked out into the dim hallway. She sensed everyone in the immediate vicinity was asleep. However, she couldn't locate the thought patterns of her husband or her son. She walked to Star's quarters and entered the dark room. A small nightlight on the far wall shed just enough light for her to see _two_ poles in the dark. A large piece of cloth covered only the top of them. With the nightlight low to the floor, it cast a strange shadow on the ceiling and nearby wall… two lines that disappeared into a blotch.

The vixen reached along the bulkhead until her paw brushed over a control panel; she turned on the lights. The living room brightened and she turned her gaze back to the two metal poles in the far corner by the nightlight. Her eyes widened at two identical Cerinian-made staffs. She brought her paw to her muzzle then rubbed her eyes. Krystal lifted both of them and inspected the twin canes. A cleaning cloth dropped to the floor at her feet.

Her eyes then zeroed in on a woman's jacket draped over a chair by the sofa. She sniffed at the air then frowned; her ears lowered. Krystal walked to the door, turned the lights back out and carried both her staff and the identical object down to her quarters. She placed them together in the glass case and went to her bedroom to shower and get dressed in clean clothes.

Half an hour later, she reemerged from the bathroom, brushing her damp headfur and hunted through the closet for something comfortable. Krystal picked out a knitted sweater and denim slacks then perked, sensing someone else. She opened the door to the sitting room and gasped in surprise. A young fennec vixen sat on the loveseat next to the display case at the center of the room. A lamp mounted to a table at the end of the small couch illuminated the woman's face with its gentle glow.

Krystal approached the young woman and sat down next to her. She lifted her paws as if to touch Fara Phoenix's cheek then paused. "May I?"

The attractive young lady nodded. Krystal placed her palms on either side of Fara's muzzle. They both closed their eyes and the silence became deafening. Krystal took a few moments to probe the woman's mind, curious about her. She detected Fara's scent in Marcus' room earlier and sensed the younger female's bottled emotions.

Krystal saw _everything_ – perhaps more than Fara ever intended to show. Fox McCloud as a young boy at the age of eighteen… the secret Cornerian missions, the military tribunal involving Pepper's promotion to General. She then felt Fara's pain leading up to the final moments before being placed into cryo-stasis. She explored the last five years of Fara's life up to the last month spent with Star McCloud. She watched the boy's transition to _Marcus_ through the memories of Fara's eyes. She watched in horror as her son crumbled emotionally after fighting the woman calling herself Kursed. She learned of Fara and Marcus growing close then watched the interaction between Fox and the fennec. She lived Fara's recently suppressed nervousness. The young fennec worried about acceptance as Marcus' mate.

Krystal broke the telepathic connection and drew in a deep breath, as though she'd not taken one during the entire interaction. Her eyes met Fara's matching hue of twin green orbs then she gently drew the girl into a tender embrace. "You bottle your pain very deeply yet your heart is on your sleeve."

Fara whispered against the older woman's face. "Please, understand how hard this has been."

Krystal's soothing voice was like a gentle balm. "Shh, I know. This is difficult for me as well, but that isn't your fault. You have my respect. I'm not your enemy – although amusingly enough… of myself, Fox and Star, I'm actually supposed to be the _stubborn_ one. But I empathize with your feelings and understand your side of everything now." She sensed something else then perked

up. "We'll talk soon, all right? Thank you for allowing me to look. That was very bold to trust me with your deepest secrets – I appreciate your willingness to confide in me."

"Marcus hasn't seen everything the way you just did," replied Fara in a soft voice. "He's not ready to see all of that. Fox doesn't know _anything_ about what happened, yet. You can sense them?"

"They've just landed," said Krystal. "It seems that Fox wanted to have a moment – father and son time – to bond after all those years."

Fara slipped from the sofa and stood up. "You have a family reunion to attend." She nodded to the two poles in the glass display case. "The one with the black tip belonged to Kursed. Marcus uses it and keeps yours on the side …out of reverence. Tell him to meet me in his quarters when the dust has settled." She walked to the door, offered Krystal a meager smile then nodded politely. "If you'll excuse me." She stepped into the hallway. The sliding doors shut with a soft click.

Krystal slumped in the cushion exhausted from everything she learned. She took a moment to prepare for coming face to face with her son again. She could tell that he sensed her… his thoughts filled her mind. '_You're awake!'_ At the opposite end of the ship, he broke into a sprint with his father behind him, hurrying through the GreatFox from the flight deck.

Krystal stood up from the loveseat and rubbed her eyes with her palms in an attempt to ready herself mentally to bond with her child. She drew in several deep breaths to calm her body; she could feel her heart racing wildly. The door slid open on its track. Fox and Marcus stood side by side. Without further warning, the younger McCloud rushed across the living room and embraced his mother.

She wrapped her arms around his torso and clung to him. He sobbed softly on her shoulder and she let go of her own feelings, telepathically consumed by his intense emotions. It brought her to tears and she cried in joy, sorrow, guilt and relief along with him.

Fox cautiously approached them both from the side then tenderly placed his arms around both Cerinian foxes. Both of them weeping was almost too much too bear. He tightened his jaw to keep his emotions in check so that he could be strong for them.

Krystal held her son dearly. She whispered against the bottom of his right ear. "I love you." Silence resumed, save for the soft sounds of sobbing. She could feel his hot tears against the side of her face. It matted her fur – her own tears flowed down either side of her fuzzy cheeks. His emotions ran high and hot and she sensed them in conjunction to her own. After several long moments, she drew her head back and placed her palms on either side of his face. "Let me get a good look at you, sweetheart. I've missed you so much."

The excited boy babbled between choked sobs of joy, relief and hiccups. "I couldn't sense you – it was the first time I'd ever gone without feeling your presence in my life. I thought you were both dead. I…" He trailed off, looking upon her face, moved by the fond gaze she offered. "I love you too, mom."

Krystal cut her eyes to her husband and, in a sincere and tender voice, asked, "Could we have a moment? I don't mean to exclude you, Fox – even though he's a man I need a minute to treat him like my baby."

"I understand," said Fox in a reverent voice. "It's only fair; after all, he and I just spent a little time together while you were asleep. I'll be in the den, love."

Krystal waited until the bedroom door slid shut then she smiled at her son. "I always tell him, '_You'll never understand how much I love you_.' He's a man – how can he understand? But you… you're a part of me in more ways than blood. You're special. You understand because you can feel my emotions." She drew in a slow breath then said, "I spoke to Fara… and I sense that she feels for you the way I felt about your father when I was much younger… She is hopelessly in love, but repressing it to remain professional. She's standing behind her professional judgment and taking things one step at a time. You feel all of that when she's near, don't you?"

"I was afraid you wouldn't approve." Relief shined in his eyes.

Krystal touched the boy's face, just learning every inch of his jawbone and muzzle with her fingertips. "I sense that your father is struggling with it. This will be hard for him to accept, let alone for him to understand. He's reeling and he's at a loss. He's too shocked to face the fact of it right now. One other thing… I'm honored over your choice in name, but may I ask _why_?"

"It just… fit me." He nuzzled into her palms and added, "It was your suggestion… Well, I mean…"

Krystal sensed his meaning. The boy was still emotionally distressed by his actions regarding Kursed. She hushed him with a finger upon his lips. "We saw the damage she did in her universe. It was beyond comprehension."

Marcus looked down at the floor between them. "Be glad you couldn't feel her hurt and her hate. I felt it all – I held her in my arms as she died. I mourned her and every second of it was more personal than the last. I… I sound stupid saying all of this. I can't really find the right _words_ to explain it."

Krystal brought a paw beneath his chin and lifted his head. "You know you don't have to explain it." She moved her paws to his shoulders and said, "No boy should've had to do whatshe asked of you. No son should be asked to murder his own mother, even if she wasn't _really_ me. Your soul is stained, you've repressed your feelings but this incident has left you traumatized. I've not used my telepathy to heal someone since before Cerinia's demise. I'll do my best."

"I've been healing and coping in my own way," he replied in a quiet voice.

"I know." She kissed his forehead. "But don't use Fara to heal your heart. Don't use vengeance against Venom to heal your mind. Please, don't use your team to heal your soul. That's not what they're meant for. They're not a _patch job_. Do not self medicate your hurt by clinging to your current situation because if it changes, you could lapse or cause yourself a breakdown." The healer's training from her youth came second nature.

"I'm so confused right now. And I need to tell you about some of my dreams. One of them happened right before I woke up in a Cornerian hospital, from fainting. I dreamt I spoke with my grandfather – not James, _Marcus_. He gave me something and, well, it's just a long story. I want to talk about it later on. Part of the reason I fainted is because I'm so confused and emotional and…"

Krystal placed two fingers against her son's lips and said, "It will take time, but I will do my best to heal your heart, your mind and your soul. Your father, however, needs to heal in his own way… time and patience. Understanding and acceptance will follow."

"I failed your teachings after you two disappeared. I never meditated… save for when Peppy forced me. I didn't practice my lessons and I rarely picked up a pole to work on my techniques. I 'self-medicated' over my personal losses by focusing my emotions on a girl named Violet. Now I've ruined the future of a child…" He paused again, stifled by a hiccup. "Dammit, I don't mean to unload on you."

"As much as I want to know about my grandchild, we all need a moment to calm down first. We'll speak upon it soon, but right now I want to enjoy the company of _my _child. You're not unloading on me... Everyone is entitled to vent their emotions. Your father liked to bottle his pain. Every time someone died, he lost someone or he felt he did something wrong, he suppressed it. You can't pretend your pain doesn't exist. It doesn't always just _go away_. He was so scared that I would die that he selfishly threw away our love. Before now, you were too young for me to explain _anything_. But his bottled pain and anger clouded his judgment. Could you imagine if you hurt the heart of a woman you loved by accident?"

"I already have. I did it to Violet. Now she's out of my life. The weird part is, I never intended for Fara to be anything more than a professional associate."

Krystal placed her fingers against his muzzle again to quiet him. "I told you, she and I already cleared everything up. She's a very complex and intelligent woman. I was lucky to see her side of things – it prepared me to better understand the situation. Do each other a favor and start slow. Haste makes waste."

"She's a natural teacher," said Marcus. "I'm going to try and convince her to approach Bill when the dust settles… I think she should reprise her role as an instructor… but instead of teaching pilots, she should teach special operations. Obviously, Corneria has the need for such a program again."

"I saw that," Krystal murmured, recalling some of the images she'd seen while exploring Fara's memories. "You would be surprised, maybe even appalled by what she's capable of and what she's trained to do."

"She goes out of her way to try and protect me from learning about her past. She's afraid I'll see something intense and it will… well… give me nightmares. I know that sounds dumb but I've had trouble with nightmares since you guys disappeared."

"Really?" Krystal's eyes widened, sensing a fleeting thought in his subconscious, concerning some of the things that plagued his dreams. Her jaw dropped. "Peppy passed?" More tears filled her eyes. "Oh by the goddess," she murmured sadly. "He was a foster father to me. Oh, Peppy…" She looked down and sighed in fresh grief.

Marcus wrapped his arms around his mother. "He died in his sleep. I found him in bed and cried until long after the ambulance took him away. Without him, our family wouldn't be the same. Dad needed him, you needed him and after you guys disappeared, I needed him. He was my flight instructor for two years. I don't know what I'd have done without him."

Krystal remained quiet, simply weeping against his shoulder. She mourned him as she mourned the death of her own biological parents after Cerinia's demise. From the bedroom, Fox heard her sobbing and reemerged. He crossed the living room and drew them both into his arms again.

"What's wrong?"

Marcus' muffled voice filled the room. "She just found out that Peppy died a few years ago. She needs a moment to let it sink in."

Fox sighed longingly. He wanted to thank Peppy one last time and say all the things he never did but it was far too late and he knew it. "He was there for me, to pick up the pieces of my shattered life, after my father died. I was an orphan and he saved my life and my future. I understand he was there for _you_ when we disappeared. I'm eternally grateful to him – I only wish he was alive for me to tell him how much I appreciate what he's done for this family."

"There's one more thing I've not yet told you guys," said Marcus. He swallowed back his emotions and licked his lips with apprehension. "Corneria was recently attacked. I know this is a lot for you two right now, but my team needs the help of your team… The capital city is simply… _gone_. I'm not being facetious when I say there's nothing left but a crater and some charred debris. Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of radiated corpses rotting in the flash-burnt streets, covered with plaster, ashes and soot. It's… It's all Venom's fault and I'm going to turn that planet back into the _wasteland_ it once was!"

Krystal's head snapped up. "You'll do _no such thing_. Have you any idea what genocide solves? Nothing! Taking down their leaders and dismantling their forces is an option, but wiping them off the face of Lylat is _not_ the answer! I've raised you better than to harbor such hate, young man!" Her facial fur was matted down from the tears but her eyes burned with intensity. She paused for a moment to let it all sink in then added, "We'll do our best to help you but when all of this blows over, I sense your father wants to retire. I feel the same way – I want to hang up my past and start working on my future with him. I'm nearly fifty and your father…" She abruptly stopped and looked to her husband. She sensed his thoughts then glanced at Marcus and nodded, "You know where I'm going with this. I don't need to lecture you like a boy. But you need my help to heal your angry heart lest it consume you. You've already seen what it looks like to be consumed with hate." She nodded over to the display case where Kursed's staff rested besides her own.

"I… don't want to become her. I carry that so I can remember her."

Krystal nodded. "Let it be a reminder that you have to be true to yourself, Star…" She took a deep breath and placed her palm against his cheek then corrected herself. "…_Marcus_."

"I'm glad you're both home." He drew his parents back into a hug. After a few moments, he released them and said, "You both need some time to… well, you know… re-acclimate yourselves to everything. Bill will want to know you two are safe and awake… I need to go and pace the ship – that's my thing. Then, I'm going to see about getting Theodore back with Bill's help. We need him. Welcome home mom and dad."

Krystal's eyes went wide. She looked from left to right then exclaimed, "Strange thought patterns. Can you hear them?" She turned to Marcus, expectantly.

He concentrated but couldn't hear or sense anything. "I'm drawing blank." He tilted his head then shrugged. "Nothing." He watched her move towards the nearest window then something did fill his mind. He furrowed his brows. "What in the hell?" Without further warning, the GreatFox Flying Fortress pitched to the left.

Krystal looked out the window, screamed in surprise then glanced over her shoulder. "Get to the ships! It's some sort of bioweapon! I sense Andrew Oikonny is nearby and he's out for blood!"

Marcus' jaw dropped. He ran for the door and shouted, "They withdrew from Eladard before Fara and I could find it!" He dashed out into the hallway and mashed his thumb down on a nearby ship intercom system, waking up everyone aboard. "This is not a drill! _EVERYONE_ report to the flight deck! Andrew's bioweapon is attacking us! ROB, automate the flight deck equipment to ready everyone's fighter for immediate launch!"

He turned back to his parents and said, "My Arwing is on the cruiser's flight deck. Both your ships are still on the carrier's flight deck. I'll meet you guys in space!" He saw his father's expression then turned back to the intercom and added, "StarFox, _move out_."

* * *

A/N: _WELL? Isn't this chapter what you've all been waiting for? How was it? I wanna' know!_

_:D_

_(Later edit:  Seven paragraphs were cut and continued a few lines down.  I've only experienced this problem when uploading files in DocX format, aka windows 2007.  Anyone else have this odd problem?  Also, wow!  10 reviews in 24 hours!  As of this edit, 12 on this chapter so far!  Again, you guys humble me!)  - - 3-23-08_


	29. Chapter 29

C H A P T E R – _**Twenty-Nine**_

x-

**Violet leaned back against the bunker wall** and sighed. It shook again, from another close depth charge detonation. She turned to her mother and rolled her eyes then gazed at the floor. "We should be up there doing something about this crap instead of hiding under the oceans of Aquas. Maybe Marcus was right."

"Just be glad the baby has been pleasant and calm over the last week," replied Katt. "Honestly, we're in a lucky situation right now. Besides, your father is out there somewhere, remember? This is what he does, Violet."

"If you two still love each other, why tell the general public you guys _never_ married?"

"The public has easy access to the truth," Katt began, "They can look in the public records – we were married at the justice of the peace, Violet. But he and I needed space sometimes, so we were apart here and there. Instead of explaining the situation to everyone, we just didn't advertise that we were married. StarFox watchers began to question if we ever really married or not, which isn't their damn business. At any rate, I need a cigarette."

"You quit." Violet cut her eyes back to her mother. "A long time ago."

"You know… I didn't actually smoke until you were born," said Katt, rummaging through her purse. "And I had one again for the first time in ages, when your father showed up a few days ago. …And," the feline paused then shrugged. "…I need one right now." She found a metal case with two cigarettes and took one out. "I'm not starting again – I just need _one_. Don't hassle me over this – it calms my nerves. I don't want to do it around the baby." She stood up and walked out of the large public shelter room.

Violet arched her back, peering over the lip of the stroller nearby. The swaddled baby slept peacefully with a bottle lying adjacent to his tiny left arm. She sighed again and leaned back in the corner.

A boy approached them from across the room and sat down besides her. Much like her, he was a hybrid, too. Half avian and half reptile, he had wings sprouting from his shoulder blades, but didn't have feathers. He knelt down and ruffled the scaly appendages with a sigh. "Hey, Violet. I saw your mom walk off; is everything okay?"

"Yeah, things are fine, Asper." She looked back to the boy and shrugged. "What was it your friends called you again?"

"Dragon – kinda generic for a nickname. I actually prefer my real one."

"Asper is rather unique, I must agree," she said.

"It's an old Venomian name from some sort of stupid, worthless war story. What can I say, my parents aren't original – but, yeah, it's unique everywhere else in Lylat." He wrapped his arms around his knees, pulling them to his chest then leaned his head back against the wall. "So, how much does it suck that all the pilots are grounded?"

"It shouldn't matter to you; you're a Marine transport flyer, right?"

Asper shrugged somewhat. "Sometimes I'm gunnery control, other times I fly the big ole' transporters. Either way, everyone is grounded right now – I'd rather see some action."

"But will Katina's military give you permission to engage Venom forces, _knowing_ you're half Venomian?"

"They don't care," he told her firmly, adding, "And neither do I. Both of my parents swore allegiance to Katina, and are citizens. I think they're worried about me, though. They know I was on shore leave here, when all this happened."

"I'm glad you were," said Violet. "Talking to you over the last week has been fun."

"Thanks, I feel the same way." He cast a glance over at the entrance to the East Wing bunker then said, "I didn't know your mom smoked."

"She doesn't," replied Lombardi with a chuckle. "She had _one_ the night her and my father had their 'reunion'. She goes on walks and puts a cigarette behind her ear. Then she comes back a few hours later and sticks it back in her purse. The walk calms her nerves, she carries the lighter and the cig just in case she decides she wants to light it… she never does. She's walked around with that thing every day for a week, but she _always_ has two left in the case when she reaches for it." Violet closed her eyes and sighed. "I feel like I've not slept in a million years." The bunker rumbled again. "And as often as our walls vibrate, I doubt I will."

Asper knelt up and peered at the baby. "Luckily, it doesn't bother little J.R." He used a scaly finger, drew back a corner of the blanket, and smiled at the feather-headed foxling. "He's cute, though." He peered over his shoulder at Violet, against the wall then grinned. She was breathing deeply and unresponsive.

As if on cue, the baby opened his mouth and closed his fingers around the bottle. He struggled to lift it. The plastic formula-filled object, designed in a forty-five degree angle like a wide 'v', was wedged down with the layer of blankets at the far side. Asper drew it out and helped the child guide it to his mouth. The hybrid reptile angled the bottle so that the baby wouldn't suck out any air bubbles, then he knelt back and used his talon-covered feet to push the carriage forward, pull it back and push it forward again. The gentle rocking, which he'd seen Katt and Violet do many times over the last week, quickly put the child back to sleep.

Violet opened a single eye, watching Asper. She not only trusted him, she was starting to think of him as a true friend. She reached her left paw out and placed it atop his right forearm. She patted the backside of his hand then shut her eye again and drifted back into sleep. Meanwhile, Asper continued rocking the carriage in a gentle manner. Another deep rumble vibrated the ocean-floor bunker. Her paw slid down from his wrist and found its way to his palm; he closed his fingers over hers and smiled in silence.

x-

"Dammit, we could really use Slippy and Theodore!" Marcus jerked on the side-stick control then stomped his foot on a rudder. "Andrew has some-damn-nerve! All ships, check in with a damage report!"

"Falco here," rumbled the deepest voice of the group. "This thing ain't pretty, but I don't have a scratch on me."

Vivian Hare formed alongside of Falco's ship and joined the radio channel. "The Jack Rabbit needs a new paint job – starting with four more kill markers on the nosecone! Now, if we could just figure out this massive thing's weak spot, we'd be in good condition!"

"Fara here; I've accounted for four fighters but Vivian is right – we need to figure out a weak spot on this thing!"

Fox's voice came next. "Slippy and Theodore certainly _would_ make it easier to stop this thing. I'm trying to contact Slippy now, so he can help us figure out a way to analyze it for an Achilles heel."

Krystal's voice came at the end, forming alongside of Marcus' fighter. "This weapon's strange thought patterns do nothing for us. It's hardly even sentient – it doesn't know its own weak point, but if we can figure out how to hurt this thing, I'd be able to tell."

Another fighter rushed out of the GreatFox Flying Fortress. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late!" Crimson punched the throttle then immediately dodged an Ion missile. "Whoa! That was close – trying to shoot me down coming out of the launch tube… So why is everyone just sitting here?" He mashed down on the fire button, scoring a useless volley of blaster marks on the bioweapon's exterior skin. Enraged, it swatted at him. "Geeze!" The half-lupine pushed his control stick forward, narrowly avoiding a massive hand. "There are seven of us and we can't even make a mark on this thing?"

The younger McCloud tried firing at the large hand as it passed from left to right. "We need Slippy or Theodore," replied Marcus. He cut back on his throttle and added, "ROB, try firing a missile at this thing. Everyone else, pull back just in case something goes wrong."

All the pilots scattered while a missile launched from the front of the carrier-section. It lanced through the void and struck the bio weapon in its face. The explosion was awesome and the flash turned the area into a sheet of white for a matter of seconds. All the pilots narrowed their gaze, waiting for the white ribbon of light to subside.

Fox McCloud squinted through the green glass computer enhancement connected to his headset. "Direct blunt trauma has no effect. I think we made it mad, though!"

Marcus' voice came into the channel overtop of his father. "ROB, pull the ship back to a safe distance – Fire the main proton gun on the cruiser section – hit it in the face and try to blind it to cover your withdraw!"

"Main guns… firing!" replied ROB in his monotone voice. A large singular beam of raw energy nailed the target with little or no effect. The GreatFox Flying Fortress came about and all the large boosters on the backside of both sections came to life. The ship moved further from the enemy. ROB's voice returned to the channel. "With only one remaining barrel on the cruiser section, I do not suggest firing a repeated burst – an overload is possible. Defensive maneuver Epsilon One. GreatFox is dropping mines to cover its path."

"Good call," replied Marcus. "Everyone, use your tractor beams and we'll try to bring those mines a little closer to this thing. Then, use reverse polarity and push them towards the target! Dad, one of us should return to base, retrieve Theodore's fighter and tractor it out to the Proteus above Katina. We've gotta bring him back like… _now_. You've got the most clout, so _you_ should be the one to fly out there."

"Actually…" Fox paused then frowned. "I guess you're right. I'll bring him back if I can. I want you guys to lure this thing out to Sector 'Y'. Run, let it chase you. I'll take the GreatFox towards Katina. I'll be back with either Slippy or Theodore… or both – Slippy just told me on a private band that he'll meet me in a standard parking format outside of the Proteus, but he suggests using Theodore's cloaking technology to help us. The thing is, we need Teddy and his ship to activate the group cloaking field, since your ships require maintenance in order to cloak and ours don't even have the right equip…"

"Just go!" shouted Falco. "You _never_ talk in the cockpit, but on the rare occasion that do, ya' never shut up!"

"I'm going, Falco," replied Fox with a smirk. He turned his Arwing about and fired the booster. Meanwhile, the team moved into a six-fighter formation, drawing the bio weapon towards nearby Sector 'Y'.

Krystal's voice came over the radio next. "Let's split into two groups and keep this thing distracted. Fara, I'm coming up behind you – take us starboard. Vivian, form up with us, we might need your multi-lock! Falco, Marcus and Crimson, you guys try and attack this thing at odd angles, maybe it's being controlled or told what to do from a remote location. If you can, find a transmitter. We'll keep it distracted on heading towards the next sector, while Vivian shoots down its missile barrages!"

"Sounds like a plan, Sister!" said Falco.

"Follow me, ladies," added Fara, buzzing the freakish facial-looking organic monstrosity close to its eyes. It swatted at her, blundering wildly by striking itself in the face. Fara's fighter glided between two of its massive fingers and executed a barrel roll as she headed to a safer distance. "THAT was close, huh?" She sounded relaxed but happily in her element – Krystal sensed differently. Fara's heart was pounding from the scream of her proximity alarms blaring. The fingers of the bio-weapon nearly sheared off her stabilizers, narrowly missing all the sharp edges of her fighter.

"Yeah, too close for comfort," Vivian agreed. She locked her main guns on to all four fingers and the thumb then fired. The large hand went for a second swipe but, met with blaster fire, it missed its second attempt on Fara's retreating ship. "You're clear, girl! Let's get this thing out of the general area, huh?"

Krystal, wanting to make her son's new mate feel emotionally comfortable, exclaimed, "We're both behind you, Fara!" The triumvirate now had the entity's full attention. They raced towards the yellow 'Y' shaped nebula in the distance while the boys came at it from behind, scanning and attacking every rear angle.

x-

**McCloud groaned then sighed audibly**. "This is going to be a problem. Do you _know_ whose son this is? Do you know whose _grandson_ this is? Commissioner Beltino Toad is on Fichina right now and he…" He stopped, interrupted by the guard.

"I don't care, sir! I'm under _orders_!"

Fox growled and flipped his personal communicator out. The voice on the other side began with, "This is acting-General William Gr… Fox McCloud!"

"Surprise, we're okay… only we're _not_ okay, Bill. Marcus, Falco, Crimson, Fara, Vivian Hare and my wife are out there… _fighting a bio weapon_ that looks like Andrew. You've got Slippy's son in a jail cell and we need him to help us stop this thing!"

"Fox, I…" Bill just gawked. "He's associated with…"

McCloud never let his friend finish; he said, "Bill, I need you more than ever right now." Fox glanced over his shoulder, seeing Slippy Toad walk up the aisle in a hurried pace. He passed Fox and the guard and approached the bars.

"I'm back, Teddy. I spoke with dad and he agrees with your theory."

"Really?" Theodore stood up and approached the bars.

Fox's attention returned to the communicator. "Bill, I need your help and your trust. Remember when we were younger and I used to have those dreams about the girl in blue?"

"Yeah," said Gray. "We realized, years later, that it was Krystal you saw in your dreams."

"That's a fact. You used to tell me I was crazy, back when we were kids. But that came true – so you trust that weird things happen for a reason right?"

Bill scrunched his brows on the tiny visual. "Yeah, that's right – what does this have to do with Theodore? It's standard procedure – I answer to people, too."

McCloud took a deep breath then said, "You'll have the opportunity to get a full debriefing from him when all of this is over. Even if I have to bring him to you in person. Theodore is a theoretical science mechanic – he's invented a cloaking field that he can use to temporarily hide the entire StarFox team. He's also installed prototype cloak emitters on Star's team – including Falco's ship. Right now, they won't work without Theodore – you need to set him free into my custody. Just hire me to personally escort him to you and I'll borrow him until this blows over. I won't even charge you."

"Fox, I know Beltino Toad has that sort of clout on Fichina and the surrounding sectors, but Katina and Corneria's airspace belong to me. I just…"

"Dammit, Bill!" Fox snapped. "Six pilots you _need_ are _unable_ to fight this thing. I need Theodore and his father working _together_ to stop this thing before Marcus and Krystal run out of fuel! There is _no time_ to argue right now! We need him with or without your blessing! Make a decision so I can act accordingly."

Slippy approached Fox and simply blurted out, "Lives are at risk. I want my son _here_, where he's safe from that thing, but he's not a t-t-traitor and he can make a difference out there _right now_. What would General Pepper do? You looked up to him, why not make a call like he would have done."

Bill froze. He opened his jaw to say something but nothing came out. After a moment of shock, surprised by Slippy Toad's outburst, he told them, "Simon's going to be confused. …Listen, you two, I'm contacting Captain Parker on another line. You've got your pilot but we need him back for military questioning. If you don't surrender Theodore Toad back to the Proteus as soon as possible, I'll …deny Marcus from finishing his last year in the Academy. And I _know_ how much it means for him to finish… and you."

"See you soon," replied Fox, flipping the communicator shut. He turned to the laser bars and said, "As soon as the call comes down from the bridge, Teddy, we'll need you to come with us. Your ship is docked in a parking orbit – I'll have the crew tractor it to the flight deck."

"I already know how to take down that _thing_," said Theodore. He turned to the guard and pointed to his hat on a rack across the hallway. "I need that, Petty Officer Williams," he continued, reading the guard's rank insignia and nameplate. He turned back to his father and Fox McCloud. "Trust me, I never knew Bowman was playing both sides for the middle. I actually helped him steal the plans for that creature so that _he_ could stop his own cousin from _using_ it. I glanced over the documentation – I remember its weakness but we have to hurry!"

The guard approached a beeping intercom box and answered a hail from the captain. A moment later, he deactivated the laser bars and said, "You three need to hurry to the flight deck – Captain Parker asks if you three need cover from the Proteus?"

Theodore stepped through the empty gap where laser bars once glowed brightly only minutes prior. "We'll need the GreatFox's firepower and a full spread of Torpedoes from the Proteus, plus a rotating pulse-frequency phase blaster from the main guns. It rotates on a fresh frequency, cycling every one-hundredth of a second. If I'm not mistaken, the GreatFox is lacking all of her main guns from crashing on Sauria. Dad," he turned to Slippy and said, "I'm sorry I believed all the stupid childish pilots back in school – I know better now… and I'll need your help to adjust the main guns on the Proteus so it can fire on a phase-cycle pattern. It may require at least ten fighters to destroy this thing, though."

Fox balked. "Ten?" He blinked twice and shook his head. "We have six out there now… the three of us will make _nine_ but Lucy Hare isn't awake yet, neither is your mother."

Theodore quirked his brows. "Not awake?"

"We'll explain later," said Slippy. "She's safe right now. Can we do the job with only nine ships?"

"No!" exclaimed Ted. "We need to tune everyone's blasters to another frequency – its weakness is a synaptic overload. We take down the shields with the Proteus and GreatFox… then the fighters will simply attack it. Ten different phase frequencies will overload its adaptive skin by sending a barrage of information to its brain. In theory, this thing will suffer neural meltdown – the mechanical parts that keep the brain alive will seize. It requires ten differently modulated blaster shots with precise friggin' amperage and voltage from the shots. Nine is a gamble, we need ten to be sure. If we second guess and this thing adapts, it'll evolve against our weapons down the road – our shots would be harmless on a _second_ attack!"

"Oh my goodness," said Slippy. "And you saw the stolen plans while working with Dash Bowman in the past?"

Theodore nodded and approached his father with a nod. "Yeah, I glanced over them… I'm a fast spot-reader. Also, this thing _grows_ and learns rapidly. If it grows in mass too quickly, ten blaster shots won't be enough so we're racing the clock here. This thing has the ability to grow in real-time, even during combat. Right now they can't break the shields so all they can do is upset it. Let's hurry!"

x-

**Dash Bowman stood on the bridge, watching the combat** between StarFox and Andrew's weapon at the edge of the sector. He folded his arms behind his back and growled at the back of his throat. He pondered having Bliss killed, just in case she caught on. He couldn't afford to have his plans ruined by some cocky hybrid girl. However, he needed Carry's brain and Carry wouldn't help without Bliss. The doors behind him slid open and he turned.

Bliss O'Donnell approached him. "I've been thinking about what you showed me in the hold, earlier. I was curious… how did you get the body?"

A smile. "Ah, I was just thinking about you…" Then a shrug. "Obtaining the corpse of Kursed wasn't difficult. Harnessing her brain without damaging it… that was the tricky part." Dash glanced back at the view screen, magnified to display the distant battle.

"Wait." Bliss tilted her head. "I saw the body in the glass case, down there. But you never mentioned anything about that… you removed her brain? What the hell for?"

"I studied her," replied Bowman. "She used her frontal lobe for a reverse telepathic attack and very low-grade telekinesis usage. I want to build a bio-weapon and put _her_ in control of it."

"What the hell is with Andross' family members and their goddamn bio weapons?" Bliss sighed in frustration. "It's like a pissing contest, I swear to Solar – you guys love that crap." She turned away and remained stoic …but inside she was nervous. "Look, I don't care what you do, but using an angry dead chick isn't going to win you any wars. She didn't do much more than set a city on fire. So what, she's a pyromaniac; big deal. I'm not interested in small-fry man-hating idiots like that."

"Man hating?"

"That's what she did," said Bliss. "She went around and killed men. She left the women and children to run, but attacked males. If you bring her back, she'll be angry with _you_. She wanted to die. Besides, her brain is useless, it's been too long without oxygen and she would be a vegetable by now."

The ape rolled his eyes and chuckled. "I've taken the memory section, the frontal lobe and put them into a positron-loaded neural network interfaced brain. Her new cerebral cortex is plastic." He turned back towards the view screen and continued to talk. "I kept the body and have begun repairing it. She'll be bionic from inside and out – she'll be able to finish her unstoppable attack and she won't let her guard down for the likes of Marcus McCloud a second time. That's why she was so successful in attacking her native universe… she wasn't distracted by another Cerinian while on her warpath, there." The ape smiled again and added, "I watched some of her memories on a screen once I loaded them into the computer. She was a glorious tactician."

"Why burn the system? You're being shallow minded," replied Bliss. "You make her sound amazing and she's not."

"She will be when I'm done with her," he replied with a grin. "She'll mentally attack anyone who gets in her way and deliver this bomb for me. Then she'll leave and …yes, she'll help me. I've designed parts of the new brain to act subservient to me. All I want her to do is attack the McCloud line – she's very good at things like that from what I understand. Then, she'll level Andrew's forces and I'll send in that bomb and nuke him. But _my_ question is… how can I know you're not misplacing my trust, Bliss?"

The half-vixen snorted with shallow laughter. "Because if I was wearing a 'wire', Corneria would be busting in the door right now, with your taped confession. You're being paranoid because you're too close to seeing your plans all the way through… I'm beginning to wonder if you just don't trust me at all. Needless to say, you've not tried to kill me so you must need my help for _something_."

"Perhaps that is the case," Dash told her. "But I do hope you prove to be trustworthy."

"When will she be ready to destroy Andrew and take down StarFox?"

He shrugged and turned his attention back to the screen. "Not for some time. Give it a year. Unlike Andrew who rushes in with half a fleet… I like to be prepared – that will be the difference between what _he_ calls an attempt …and what I call a _victory_." He lifted a single hand and said, "You're dismissed for the evening." He waited until he heard the double doors swish open then said, "But don't think you can contact anyone. It seems our array is malfunctioning… such a pity, don't you think?"

x-

A/N: _I know! Short chapter! I've got so much I want to do that I realized a lot of this stuff cannot and will not happen until the sequel ANYhow. While that may make the end of this story seem Anti Climatic… that will ensure that the sequel is a GOOD story to read. It will have all the things people EXPECTED out of this story! Marcus interacting with his family day-to-day, the formulation of the New StarFox Team… and it will reflect on more than just Marcus' story! _

_We'll see a little bit of what Marcus' final year is like in the academy and what Crimson's freshman year is like. We'll see StarFox come together and what makes Falco decide to stay in a cockpit instead of sitting on a living room sofa, playing dad full time. We'll see a lot in this sequel. The Reflections… Of a New StarFox. _

_Coming soon!_

_For now, I'm going to get started on Chapter 30 and the epilogue, so we can close out THIS story to prepare for the sequel! For those of you who are Sly Cooper Fans, I WILL finish Spy Cooper – I just need the right… inspiration to hit. I have a lot I wish to do with that, but I'm only taking a short hiatus, not a permanent one! I promise!_

_See you for chapter 30! I hope you enjoyed this one! _


	30. Chapter 30

C H A P T E R _Thirty_

**Stars swirled in a circular pattern before his eyes.** Marcus narrowed his gaze and wrestled with the control stick in his right palm. His gloved left paw clinched the throttle – the synthetic leather wrinkled between his fingers from the tension. The Arwing continued to spin wildly. Everything happened so quickly, he had no time to consider the reason why his plane was spiraling. He gritted his teeth. His forearm bulged, fighting against the controls.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard a computer alarm, a damage status alert and a computerized voice demanding him to eject. His eyes flitted down to a monitor on the dash. The digital wireframe display of his ship showed a red section at the bottom. His head lifted again, watching the Sector Y nebula circle around the top and side of his cockpit. It moved from right to left like a rising and setting sun. Marcus drew in a breath through his clinched teeth – he exhaled.

His arms and his legs – equally tight from working the rudder pedals – moved instinctively to offset the situation. His calm eyes moved back to his instrument panel. A warning indicator flashed on his HUD, demanding his attention to a button near his flight stick. The button sparkled with a strobe effect, begging him to press it. Marcus' eyes dropped to the button's label then rose back to the Heads Up Display. A soft computer tone chimed then prompted him to press the button. "Recommended you release the oxygen mask for emergency use." There was no time for that luxury.

A calm voice filled his mind. The feminine tone, concise and loving, said, '_Don't pull the stick – push it instead._' He jerked his right paw from left to right, released the rudder pedal and punched his forward throttle. The Arwing responded as though a front-wheel drive automobile just gained purchase on dry road after spinning out in a puddle.

Despite his G-diffuser, the sudden end of his spin threw him forward against his harness restraint then back against the cushion. The stars stopped spinning. Sector Y settled directly above his head. He eased back on the stick and the nebula floated before his targeting reticule. In the distance, he saw five fighters and the bio-weapon. "Thanks, mom. I underestimated his reach. I'm transferring power from unnecessary systems to replenish my shields. Is everyone else okay?"

"Get back in formation and we'll try again," said Falco.

Fara's voice came next. "You're the team leader – you need to delegate more and stop doing all the hard work by yourself. I've got your wing covered; you're clear to head back into formation."

The monotone sound of ROB filled the in-dash audio panel. "Three fighters and a Capital ship inbound… sensors confirm – it's the Proteus, escorted by Fox, Slippy and Theodore."

"Outstanding!" Marcus cried.

Vivian Hare separated from Krystal and Fara, targeting debris spewed out from the bio-weapon's maw. Preoccupied with shooting down the detritus, she left herself vulnerable to a front-on attack. The weapon swung a massive hand at her ship. She looked up just in time to see it heading straight for her.

Without warning, a bright flash filled the inky void of space. The concentrated blue beam struck the large hand with such force it caused the weapon to miss her fighter. A familiar voice filled the radio patch. "An experienced pilot would cover his wing mates. Panther Caruso is just such a pilot."

"Get lost, Caruso," shouted Falco.

"We don't need your help," added Crimson. He smirked over the holographic comm. panel then said, "The real Calvary is already at the edge of the system."

Vivian cut back into the channel. "I appreciate your quick action, Mister C., but how come our sensors didn't detect you?"

"A rose has the ability to go overlooked until it's ready to bloom from a mere bud into a…"

"Enough!" exclaimed Marcus. "Panther, thank you for helping my pilot. You can stay if you like, but we've not found a way to even scratch this thing. Oh, and I _told you_ I didn't kill my mother. Maybe now you'll listen to me."

"…Krystal." Panther sighed the word.

Krystal McCloud reentered the channel. "Panther, I've little to say to you." She moved between Vivian and Fara then squinted in response to Vivian Hare firing her multi-lock blasters. The shimmering shot spread out in every direction, striking down the incoming debris.

"I have no desire to make you feel uncomfortable, Krystal." Panther spoke in first person with a calm and humble voice. "I simply wished to verify you were alive. My initial desire was to avenge you, under the assumption that your husband was gone."

"Very flattering," she replied. "I'm pleased to see you've finally matured. But I want to remind you that I've been married for over twenty years."

Panther nodded. His image pixilated on the holo-emitter bar. "I am genuinely pleased you are happy – Panther is still a hopeless romantic and… seeing you happy, in love and alive is …very good. I have no intention of driving wedges or starting drama, Space Flower."

A new voice entered the patch. "This is Theodore; we're going to need Panther's help to defeat this thing."

Marcus over-righted his ship and headed back towards Katina to greet the incoming Proteus. "Like I said, he's invited to the party. Remember, this is _my_ show, Caruso. I'm in a different state of mind since we last spoke. Now you'll see me in my element."

"Panther has nothing to say to you, boy." A guttural growl followed his statement. The sound reverberated deep in the feline's chest, rumbling over the onboard audio gear in McCloud's cockpit.

"Mom, talk to some sense into him – it's the only way we're going to get his full cooperation." Marcus cleared his throat then said, "Theodore! Welcome back! How do we need Panther's help? We've tried everything – one more gun isn't going to do anything. You know something?"

"Regroup and back off that thing," explained Theodore. "Dad is in a private channel with the Proteus and ROB to set up the attack pattern but everyone needs to change their weapons. I'm scanning everyone's ship now." He paused then chuckled. "Mister C., I didn't realize you were a thief, too. That's _my_ stealth technology you're using on your ship. How did you get it?"

"Panther came across it by chance – explain what you know about this enemy… Panther's Zapper cannon had no effect on that foul beast."

"I'm going to run a quick calculation," returned the younger of the two amphiboids. "Listen, I'm going to beam you guys instructions. I want everyone to calibrate their weapons accordingly. The only way we can beat this thing is to overload it with information. We're going to deliver this information in the form of amperage and voltage."

"How do we know this will work?" asked Fara.

"As you guys may know, I'm a machinist," replied young Toad. "But as a hobby, I also dabble in electrical engineering. There is only one weakness: once a capital ship's plasma cannon lowers its shields, the exterior skin… which, itself, is plasma-_proof_ … can be used as a conductor to its brain. If we hit it at the same time with everything we've got, we can induce something akin to an epileptic seizure. However, the only thing that will seize on this monster is its frontal lobe. When the brain shuts down, it will act like a computer and reboot. But its part organic…"

Fara snapped her fingers. "Like overloading the ground to a voltage greater than the output of the power supply, reversing polarity in a sense. Then, because its brain will be offline… it will, in a sense, stop breathing until it is back _on_line. …But that would cause it to die from metaphorical asphyxiation."

"The body will die before it can reboot," confirmed Theodore. "I'm not even sure _how_ Andrew could have built this thing! Dash and I stole the plans before he built it! He was still on Sauria at the time! It seems like it should be impossible…"

Falco snorted. "Maybe Dash built it and framed Andrew. That idiot Oikonny is so pressed about getting Venom to respect him, he would happily take the credit for this thing."

Crimson cut into the conversation. "Or Dash built it, Andrew stole it _back_ and is using it himself. Whatever the situation is, we need to jack this thing up _now_ and stop talking like we're at a damn party!"

Fox McCloud buzzed Panther's ship at a hypersonic speed and said, "Instructions downloaded and confirmed, Theodore. Everyone take their positions. I have every intent on taking out _both_ Dash Bowman _and_ Andrew Oikonny. I'm ready for this to be over so I can take my _wife_ home and relax! So… by all means, Panther… join the party if you want." Fox narrowed his eyes and smirked, remembering Panther's scathing advice to Krystal during the Anglar War. He grinned slightly and added, "But if you ask me, your presence is absurd; Krystal, sweetheart, tell this_ loser _where to stuff his Wolfen and let's go."

Caruso growled again. "Touché." He gritted his teeth then, in a semi-muffled tone, said, "Panther fights _only_ to avenge the destruction of his favorite café. Make no mistake, he will only…"

"Enough!" shouted Fara. "If you're so _obsessed_ with women, maybe you'll listen to _me_ when I tell you to shut up and get into formation!"

Panther chortled. "Rower – how feisty; if only you were older." He dropped out of the radio channel and punched his throttle, moving into position according to Theodore's plan.

Krystal offered a slight giggle. "Oh the irony, Fara… How nice it must feel to be called _young_. Especially with what you've been through." She moved across from Panther, putting the bio-weapon in direct line of sight between them.

Fara smirked. The hint of a grin tugged at the corner of her muzzle over the holo-display. "I could get used to the thought of it all… A few friends of mine back on Corneria have already dubbed me the new flight handle of _Immortal_. Okay, gang… let's do this…" She moved into position and said, "Marcus, it's your show, babe."

"This suddenly seems _too easy_," replied McCloud, adding, "Dad, I'm getting a strange reading from my sensors – it looks like you've got something off your port side."

"I don't see anything." Fox paused for a moment. Then, "Sensors show all clear. You sure you're not seeing a glitch?"

Krystal furrowed her brows. Her thumb-nail image distorted over the holo-bar. "No, wait, I sense another presence. It's not the incoming Proteus or her crew, either."

"I think the damage to my ship is allowing my sensor array to pick up a slight distortion… it's like the faint outline of a ship."

Falco opened fire on the empty space adjacent to Fox McCloud's ship. His shots disappeared abruptly as if striking something solid. With the attention of the entire team now distracted, the bio-weapon opened its massive maw and launched an ion missile.

"Incoming projectile," shouted Slippy Toad. "Brace for…!" The ion missile exploded in an impressive flash. The blinding light remained fully incandesced for a solid minute. Sensor scopes on every dashboard shimmered as though they were disrupted by an intense concentration of chaff.

* * *

**"You…"** The digitized voice had a striking resemblance to Kursed's own.

Bliss placed a paw against the glass case and sighed. "Strange – that was _my_ first reaction upon seeing you down here in his cargo hold. Just promise me one thing… I don't want you to go after my brother Crimson. You used him as bait to catch Star… I don't appreciate that."

"I recall he wished to change his name."

Bliss bit her lower lip. "…And McCloud followed through. I'll be honest: I don't much care for you. But, I like your doppelganger even less. She annoys me – you shouldn't even be here anyhow."

"Pull the plug," replied Kursed. "You can make it end for me."

"I can't, damn you!" Bliss ran her fingers back through her headfur and sighed. "The stupid machine is guarded by laser beams. Look at you! You're a machine, now! This is idiocy. What the hell are your plans if you were able to successfully destroy Lylat? You're useless."

"I do not know at this time," returned the reply through the speakers built into the side of a nearby machine. "I've pondered the irony of repopulating Cerinia, using Corneria. Destroy the population save for a chosen team of scientists… use my DNA to create another Cerinia full-blood …then begin populating the planet. The idea amused me."

"First of all, you're talking about _cloning_," said Bliss. "Followed by inbreeding. You're still psychotic. But, I can't deny one thing…"

"You still find me attractive. Pathetic," replied Kursed. "How long must my body be in this chamber?"

"Dash told me you're going to be in there for a while." She sat down on top of the horizontally laid glass case, on the far left end, so that she was sitting above Kursed's face. "Can you open your eyes, while you're in there?"

"I have no physical control over my body at this time." Kursed sighed despondently. "But I sense that you're sitting above my muzzle… perverted jezebel."

"I _would_ reply with _'eat me!'_ but… the glass case makes it hard. In all seriousness, though… What is your big hang up over males?"

Kursed's digitized voice sounded dispondant. "Fox McCloud betrayed me, Panther Caruso betrayed me by not protecting me and speaking out for me in the face of his precious audience… the only thing more important to him than someone he claimed to love… then Fox betrayed me _again_. He gave up on me and, later, didn't even so much as recognize me when we came face to face on Kew."

"Kew?" Bliss cocked a brow. "I'm not familiar with that planet or station. So, you came back to Corneria, exacted revenge for being humiliated, and killed your ex-boyfriends. Why keep going from there?"

"I punished planets," said Kursed. "But I left entire populations to my forces. When I entered a battlefield, I was only concerned with killing the males who reminded me of my past naivety. Doing so brought me amusement. And you? What do _you_ live for?"

"I go where the money is. But I have this feeling that Dash is going to try and backstab me."

The motionless blue vixen remained in physical stasis. Bliss found herself looking over the woman's nude body again before stretching out along the top of the case. She rolled over onto her stomach and looked down at the woman's face.

"The body you currently observe is old enough to be your mother." No reaction. Kursed's voice continued. "Why do you suddenly feel sympathy for me? I didn't ask for your emotional attachment in _any_ way."

"It must suck to be in there," Bliss replied. "Why did you spare Crimson in the streets of Fichina? You shot him with a stunner – you could have just killed him like you were pretending to do. I've been pondering that… if you hate all men, why spare him?"

"Simple… It was a head game. If I killed Crimson and McCloud struck me down in vengeance, his actions would be justified. But if I rendered the O'Donnell boy unconscious and was able to fool McCloud's telepathy… and forced his paw to react with hate… he would doubt himself in the future. I wanted to die, but not before causing him some measure of emotional grief. He deserves it – he's part of Fox McCloud."

Bliss grinned a bit. "You wicked, wicked bitch."

"Vixen," Kursed corrected. "You know as well as any, I am not canine. At the very least, I would like to see my work on Marcus McCloud through to its conclusion. I would find great pleasure in ruining his heart and mind. He radiates with everything I despise. I wish to corrupt him in some measure."

O'Donnell slid off the glass case and shrugged. "Okay, you're boring me. Leave Crimson alone or I'll personally put a huge hole between your eyes. I don't really care what you do with Markey-Marc and the funky bunch. I'm going to dip out of here before Bowman turns on me. See you next year or something."

Kursed, still armed with her telepathic abilities, said, "Planning to tell the ape you're going to run a patrol in order to get away? Oh, and stowing your girlfriend in your fighter's gear hold? Well then, aren't you clever… We'll cross paths again, child of O'Donnell."

Bliss shrugged once more and headed for the door. "At least Bowman's giving you a face lift… you look ten years younger, already. See you around, crazy lady." The hybrid shook her head and left the cargo hold. "I'm out of this dump…"

* * *

**Dash folded his hands, **looking across the wooden table at his cousin. "I'm impressed, Andy. What kind of progress is your science team making on this terraforming project?"

"The planetary ecosynthesis project has revolved around the machine we found in the Venom Sea."

Bowman brought his hand to his chin and rubbed his fingers against the brown beard along his jaw line. "You found grandpa's legacy machine? I've had Anglars searching for that for years… we thought it fully dissolved."

"It's capable of much _more_ than just transforming the acidic oceans," replied Andrew, trying to keep from getting excited. He cleared his throat and said, "It's designed for much, _much_ more. Full ecopoiesis. The fabrication of a sustainable ecosystem on a currently lifeless, sterile planet. Ecosystem creation is restricted to the initial seeding of microbial life. But if you attempt to use it on a populated planet…"

Dash folded his hands again and smiled. "It's like formatting a hard drive… it makes the unit like new, but at the expense of any data on it… it kills, wipes and starts new…"

"The perfect way to defeat Corneria… if we work together. It would leave their cities intact but remove and restart all life on that planet. One of us would take Venom, the other would be able to populate Corneria. There's no reason for us to fight. We would be expanding the family Empire. We would each be the emperor of our own respective planet."

Dash nodded then smiled a bit. "I've recalled the bio-weapon from fighting StarFox. They still think it's yours. After monitoring radio transmissions, it seems I need to make some modifications to its power supply and exterior skin. It's a headache but... like I said, you've been credited with its creation and use."

"I don't care. I only wish to take the time to study this machine. We can use it to make the _rest_ of Venom as hospitable and climatically mild as Corneria. No doubt, it now boasts the cleanest oceans in Lylat… there's no reason we can't reverse the dirty air of Venom. As far as using the machine for ecopoiesis, I say we _test it_ on the most industrial planet in existence… Eladard."

Dash tilted his head. "That planet is where I've set up my research base of operations. I would require time to relocate my scientists."

Andrew looked visually annoyed. "I heard a full military retreat occurred on that planet. Those were not _my_ Venom forces… Even though they were billed as Imperial Venom… they must have been _your_ people. Now you're telling me you still have scientists there?"

"It's a big planet," Dash retorted. "These people are non-military. I would require their relocation before you try some silly experiment on Eladard's ecosystem. So how does this kill all life on a planet? Removal of the atmosphere?"

"Exactly," said Andrew. "And I have the machine in my possession, so that makes me the most powerful destructive _and_ constructive force in Lylat. That weapon you used on Corneria's capital won't hold a candle, Dash. That puts _me_ in control, here. You'll work for _me_ if we have an accord."

Bowman shrugged. "While you've been trying to learn how to play 'God', I've been researching the technology behind gravity, initially used to eradicate StarFox, six years ago." He smiled a bit then added, "And I have my own… shall we say… _toys_. Don't underestimate me – I've been left to my own devices in a matter of speaking."

"Bio weapons, dirty bombs and gravity-bending weapons are impressive things to have in your arsenal, cousin, but we both know _I_ am the true heir to the Empire. Staging that silly, fake civil war may have fooled Lylat, but it didn't fool me _or_ those who are loyal to _me_."

Dash leaned back in his seat. "I appreciate that you've told me everything. I'm glad there are no secrets between us anymore. Andrew, we would rule better as equals. Like you said, we'll both have our own planet to rule soon enough, right?"

Oikonny nodded. "And what of this charade that we're on opposing sides?"

Dash smiled. He knew Andrew had no knowledge of his Uranium and Plutonium shipment. Bowman also had Kursed secretly nestled away from Andrew and his spies. The only way he would be able to obtain the machine from Andrew was to steal it. He cleared his throat and reached his palm towards his cousin. "Andrew Oikonny, I accept your offer for peace. We'll announce to the reptile population that we'll put aside our petty differences and rule in the name of Andross… together. This unofficial civil war is at an end."

Andrew offered his hand but didn't yet engage the handshake. "When we crush Lylat, I'll give you Fortuna and Katina. I've decided both Venom and Corneria will be mine."

Dash glared at his cousin for a moment then a wan smile crept across his maw. "Very well." He closed his hand over Andrew's and they shook. He decided, then and there, he would eventually assassinate Andrew Oikonny one day… but first, he needed to get his hands on the machine used in restoring the Venom Sea thirty years ago.

* * *

**"It's just odd,"** said Fara, adding, "Okay ROB, Arwing _four_ has the ball." She maneuvered her fighter, lining up the nosecone with the landing bay dead center of the cruiser section. "As I was saying, Marcus, I don't have a good feeling about the bio-weapon just cutting out on us." She eased the throttle control forward, passed through the force field and into the hanger.

She maneuvered carefully around the damaged door still stuck after six years. The fennec eased back on the stick, setting down gently on the runner tracks. "But I want to know where Venom's front line is attacking."

Marcus' ship raced into the bay. The front-mounted reverse thrusters flared to life, slowing him to a stop. He hovered gracefully then maneuvered his fighter, carefully turning about, facing towards the exit. "ROB, scan all the domestic Lylat planets for signs of combat. Also, scan the public communication channels – all frequencies."

Vivian Hare's ship came through the bay entrance next. She settled on the far end of the bay. Crimson came last. The force field changed color from blue to a slight red tint, barring further passage.

ROB replied, "Cornerian forces are en-route to Aquas. Their closest battleship has an ETA of sixteen hours. The remainder of their fleet will arrive shortly after. GreatFox and the Proteus are the closest ships but Captain Simon Parker's orders are to escort Theodore Toad back to Katina."

Fox McCloud's voice came over the radio channel. "Why not take him straight to Corneria?"

ROB replied, "Corneria currently holds a _strict_ defense parameter; the planet is locked down until further notice."

Marcus muttered under his breath for a moment then said, "You can leave, but you can't return until the crisis situation has ended."

"I'm still foggy on all the details," said Fox.

Fara sighed over the channel. "It's a royal mess down there. Where is Falco?" she asked, changing the subject.

"I'm landing on the carrier." Lombardi cleared his throat then said, "Katt and Violet are on Aquas… They don't have ships to fly, either. ROB, how bad is the situation?"

ROB's monotone voice returned to the audio patch. "A moderate battle fleet has taken the skies of Aquas – the ocean surface is providing little resistance at this time. Reports indicate that several boarding parties have made contact with the domed city where Katt and Violet are rumored to be hiding." As if reading into the next question, he continued to speak. "The GreatFox is _eleven minutes_ from the Sector 'Y' jump-gate. At best speed, we could achieve destination in sixteen minutes. Orders?"

Marcus licked his lips then closed his eyes. "…Make best time for Aquas – flank speed."

"Attention pilots, stand by for acceleration shock." True to ROB's words, everyone on the flight hanger felt intense pressure on their chests, save for Vivian, whose fighter wasn't yet powered down.

The sensation ended. Marcus brought his paw to the silver communicator helmet he wore and pressed a button on the side. "Listen, guys, I want everyone in the air. Refuel and grab something to eat or drink then get back in your cockpit and ready for launch. Theodore, I appreciate your help. Find me when this blows over – you're every bit as much a part of StarFox as everyone else. For now, though, head back to the Proteus. We'll catch up; don't worry. Everyone else, you'll be fighting to take back the skies of Aquas. I'm going down with the boarding party, so I won't be flying on this mission."

"I'm going with you," said Falco. "That's my wife and daughter down there."

"I need you in the sky," said Marcus. "You're too good of a pilot, Falco. Fara, as much as I'd like your help on this, you're needed in the sky or we're not going to win on that front – same with you, Dad."

"You can't go alone," said Crimson. "What about me?"

"You're my team ace," replied Marcus with a dry chuckle. "You're staying in your cockpit, Red. Vivian's multi-lock will help clean up the destroyers that have undoubtedly crowded the ocean surface… I've decided to take Tricky and mom with me." He cleared his throat again then sighed at the thought of putting a woman in her late forties in physical combat. "Get both canes from your room, mom. We'll need them. Tricky might still be sleeping on the floor in the sickbay. We'll need him to charge down the hallways in order to clear them out – he has a bulletproof shield built into his forehead so…"

Krystal's voice came over the radio patch. "Sweetheart, don't worry – I'd be honored to fight side-by-side with my son. Besides, my grandbaby is down there and I wish to see him in person."

"I just feel nervous, asking you to come along for a ground mission but… it makes the most sense. Is Panther still in the area?"

"No," replied Fox. "He and I had a short conversation on a private channel. He says he just wanted to make sure Krystal was alive and check on _you_. He said something about wanting to make sure you were ready to 'man up'… I have no idea what he was talking about so I told him to take a hike."

"It's complicated." Marcus sighed then drew in a deep, slow breath to find his resolve. "Okay, get ready. We have a lot of work ahead of us… is everyone able to agree with my plan?"

Falco opened the channel but didn't say anything at first. After a few seconds of dead air, his voice returned to the communication patch. "You know I don't like this… I don't wanna have someone _else_ rescue my wife and family… but you're right: I'll help them _more_ by clearing out the skies of Aquas. Don't screw up, kid. I'm trusting ya'."

"They'll be fine – I give you my word." Marcus waited for confirmation from all the other pilots before saying, "We launch upon arrival over Aquas. Everyone, get ready."

* * *

**Violet shifted the stroller**, keeping it snug against the wall. She peered around the corner of the intersecting hallway then leaned back, using her body to protect her son. She drew a deep breath into her lungs and gazed down at the bloody pistol in her paw. Her eyes drifted to the small silver ring, resting loosely on her thumb. She took it from the Venom guard so that she could operate his electronically programmed pistol. His blood dripped from the barrel, where she forced it against his stomach while wrestling with him ten minutes ago.

She cut her eyes back to Asper, across the way from her. She frowned – he looked tired. The half-reptile had three confiscated assault rifles slung over his shoulder and a fourth one in his left hand. The rubber grip rested in his right palm. He brought the butt stock against his left shoulder and peered down the scope, easing the barrel around the corner. Satisfied, he cut his gaze to her, lifted his right hand to his face and gestured 'two', pointed at his eyes then nodded down the hallway.

Violet thumbed the toggle switch for the laser sight on her pistol, lowered to one knee then aimed down the hall. She looked back at him, smiled then nodded. She watched him move as though everything happened in slow motion. Her heart pounded in her chest, knowing he was thrusting himself into danger for her. The feline felt a tinge of guilt, intense respect and appreciation; she held her breath.

Asper folded his wings behind his back and ducked his head, sprinting down the long corridor. He raised the barrel of his weapon, lined up the sights, squeezed off a quick round, jerked it left, squeezed off a three-round burst then knelt to one knee. She watched, waiting – Asper cleaned the weapons from the first guard, shouldered another rifle and removed his service pistol. He placed it on the floor then struck it with his heel.

The gun skittered backwards through the hallway. Violet reached a paw out and stopped the small weapon. She checked the power cell then released the safety switch.

She tugged on the extra-long strap to the diaper bag. It was tied around her waist and clipped to the carriage. She watched his hand gestures then crept out into the hall. The stroller rolled behind her, clipped on its short, makeshift leash. Violet made her way through the hall, following Asper to the next set of dead Imperial guards.

Upon approach, Asper stood up from the second guard with a tube in his hand. He passed it to her. "A silencer for your second pistol… You've plugged the baby's ears with cotton swabs from your makeup kit like I showed you?"

Lombardi nodded her head somewhat. "Yes. If it wasn't for the Phenobarbital, he'd be screaming bloody-colic-murder; let's keep moving. Mom can't have gone very far."

"Neonatal… seizure medicine?" Asper tilted his head.

"…Yes." She nodded a bit then furrowed a brow. "How did you know?"

"I'm a warfare historian – it's a hobby," he replied, adding, "Phenobarbital and Benzodiazepines are sometimes abused by snipers who want to calm their nerves and steady their hands before shooting. Another Marine I knew was court-marshaled for drug use. Is he prone to seizures?"

Violet whispered, "He was born young… a premie. He had one… and so they put him on this the first two weeks he was home from the hospital. He's fine now… but I had a great deal of this stuff left over and…" She looked down, ashamed, "Gave him a very small dose to help him sleep, after arriving on Aquas. I asked the doctor first; he said it was okay. Every other day, I feed him a small amount."

Asper reached his right hand out to her chin, lowing the rifle in his left hand so that the barrel faced the ground. He lifted her head and offered a gentle smile. "It's better for him to sleep through this than for him to be subjected to such negative …vibes."

"It also keeps him from screaming – he's colicky. He just… doesn't do well on the cheap formula. I either have to breast feed him or give him the expensive stuff. I don't exactly have access to a store right now, though."

Asper moved his thumb to her lips. "You don't have to defend your intentions to me – I don't judge you." He jerked his head towards the rest of the hallway and pulled his right hand back to the bottom-side of the rifle's barrel. "Let's hurry. The sooner we find her, the sooner we can _all_ hide… together."

Violet nodded, feeling some measure of relief in her chest. She fell into step behind him. The stroller's plastic wheels, coated in a soft synthetic rubber, rolled in silence behind her.

* * *

**Marcus mashed down on the control stick** and blasted a group of Imperial lizards on the flight deck. He opened the canopy, stood up in the cockpit and retrieved two weapons from the emergency cabinet hidden behind his chair. He leapt from his fighter with a grunt.

Krystal slid from her Cloud Runner fighter then dropped to the deck, fifteen feet away from her son. She drew her staff and used it to tap the special lever on the side of her ship then pulled out a second decorated metal staff from the hold. She tossed it to the younger fox with a smile. He placed the jeweled pole in a sheath on his back. Tricky waddled out from the cargo hold beneath Krystal's fighter then stretched. She placed the tip of her staff on the ground, holding it like a walking cane. Standing tall, the tip of her ears came only as high as the aileron of Cloud Runner's wing. "Youth before beauty," she joked with a gesture.

Marcus nodded and moved forward, heading towards the nearest hallway. "So far, so good. We've been lucky if you ask me. Are you sure you're ready?"

"I'm ready, sweetheart," replied Krystal. "Let's go find them as quickly as possible."

Tricky bounded across the hanger and sniffed at the area. "Bad guys!" He glanced over his shoulder and noted the confused look on the faces of both telepaths then said, "Over here!" and took off.

Krystal and Marcus broke into a sprint to keep up. Ahead, two floating sentry bots raced up the vestibule. They flew over the dinosaur's head and continued out onto the flight deck. Tricky stopped in his tracks and looked back up the hall.

"No," said Krystal, "I think they're used as mobile security cameras – they weren't armed and went right by." The trio walked deeper into the domed city. They emerged through large doors, standing in a street. High above their head a brilliant blue, as fantastic as the afternoon sky, filled their view. Fish and other sea creatures swam about, just beyond the rooftops of the city skyline. "It's beautiful," said Krystal, somewhat in awe.

"Look!" Marcus pointed across the street. Two abandoned hover cars sat in silence. A wisp of smoke emanated from the crumpled hood of one. The front end folded down, half-buried in the passenger door of the other. Lying in the street, directly in front of the accident scene, a dead lizard in an Imperial uniform lay sprawled out.

Krystal placed her staff in a sheath on her back. "It looks as though a civilian ran him down then struck a parked car." She fetched a pair of binoculars from a hip case and scanned the immediate area. "It's so quiet – they could be anywhere."

"I guess we should follow the carnage," said the younger McCloud. He nodded to a dead amphibian, face down in the street. Half a block down the road, another amphibian lay dead in a fetal position near the curb. "Look…" He walked down the stairs from the terminal and approached a sign.

It had an arrow pointing from where they'd come, which read, "Submarine to the surface, landing zone for submersible small craft and public Bathyscaphe. Tramlines to neighboring dome city available. Ask for details inside." In small print, beneath the sign, an arrow pointing down the road read, "Emergency evacuation route."

Marcus hooked a thumb at the sign then shrugged. "Maybe the flow of citizens went _this_ way. Let's go." He gestured to Tricky who approached him then lowered to his belly. Marcus moved to a makeshift saddle then offered a paw to his mother. He helped her up onto the dinosaur's back. "Okay, buddy, we're in a hurry to find Violet and her family. You remember her, right? Let's go."

"Yeah, I remember the purple fairy-bird lady," he replied, taking off down the road. "I also remember that she can be pretty grumpy." He picked up speed, falling into pace in a steady gait. Perched on his back, Krystal and Marcus scanned the area using their binoculars and a portable bio-sensor.

"Falco said he visited them here," Marcus told her. "They're resourceful enough that I'm sure they're alive and safe. I'm going to stay optimistic."

'_I faintly recognize the thought patterns of Katherine Lombardi_,' Krystal thought. '_I can't pinpoint it, but she's alive. The sensation of her worry is very strong but it's at the edge of my range, even with the staff acting as my antenna. I wonder if they've been separated…_'

Marcus glanced back at the scanner. The only three living beings in the immediate area was at the center of the quartz scope. '_She's beyond my abilities – but if she's experiencing worry then I'm glad. It's much better than being filled with grief. So far, I see nothing on the scanner, mom_.' He sighed then lifted his eyes back to the large four-lane road. '_It's so… deserted_.'

Krystal nodded in silence. '_I sense voices almost as numerous as the stars; none of which I recognize beyond the one. She's actually much closer than the other survivors. I'll have to train you to hyper-focus, sweetheart. Give me a moment to meditate_.' Her eyes shut and she breathed deep and slow to relax her body. '_I… I sense the mental patterns of another Cerinian. He's asleep; his thoughts are too subtle to trace – I don't know which way to go. Perhaps if we can find Katt… she can help us_.'

'_I hope so_,' replied Marcus, telepathically. "They're all beyond my natural range." He blinked, realizing he unintentionally spoke his last statement.

Tricky peered back at him and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Oh, it's nothing really – Mom and I are trying to sniff out the thought patterns of Violet and her family. I can't really explain it better than that."

Tricky lowered his head, continuing down the road. "You guys can talk to each other in your mind and stuff?" He broke into soft laughter. "That's neat – I wish I could do that. I'd like to hear what other people think about me."

"No reason you can't," said Krystal. "Just surround yourself with people you trust, then ask their honest opinion." She pointed to the next intersection, up ahead. "Make a left – I see another sign labeled 'emergency evacuation route'. It seems to be going straight towards the center of the city."

"That makes sense," returned Marcus. "If that dome cracks and the city is flooding, the safest place to go is in a bunker, under the ocean bed." His eyes stopped on another body in the street. Pockmarks littered the streets, windows and automobiles in the area. "It looks like there was a small war between the Imperials and the local police." His gaze shifted to an overturned police cruiser. The lack of dead cops made him sigh in relief.

Sensing his concerns, Krystal placed a paw on his shoulder. '_The police are trained to pull their dead and wounded out of the line of fire. Just because we don't see any downed officers doesn't mean they've all escaped unscathed_.'

'_Like I said, earlier_,' he thought in reply then said, "I'm an optimist." Once more, his own voice nearly startled him. He peered at the bio-scanner again, but the immediate area, including the overturned police vehicle, lay in abandonment.

"At least this one isn't on fire!" exclaimed Tricky, adding, "How's _that_ for optimism? Wow…" He gasped, distracted by the impressive skyline from this angle. The high-rise buildings rose to the clear dome ceiling. "They're just like …the valley of the Krazoa. You guys haven't seen _that_ part of Sauria yet… it's a field of Krazoa statues, each is taller than the last… they stretch for miles – just like these buildings. They all stand tall, just like the statues. Each one is made to look just like a huge Krazoa sculpture-thing."

Krystal quirked a brow at his over-redundant use of the phrase, 'just like' then patted the side of his neck, beneath his boney fan-plate. "I vaguely see the image in your mind. It's very impressive to behold, Tricky. When this is all over, will you show it to us? I'm sure Fox and I will stay for a visit when we take you home, after all of this finally blows over."

"I'd like that," said the King Earthwalker. "Yeah, yeah-yeah! I'll give you a tour of that. It's their only remaining city – it's really overgrown with plants and stuff, though."

Up ahead, more chaos filled the streets. Two dead lizards in uniform – the bodies looked to be in bad shape. Beyond them, a plethora of fallen citizens, mostly amphibian, littered the streets. The sight of it brought Krystal down to a somber mood. "This is horrible."

Recalling the streets of Fichina, Marcus shook his head and said, "This is _nothing_." His gaze lowered to the bio-reader, along with the drooping of his ears. "This is the work of a battle… that city was the work of a passionate butcher. Every dead Fichinian was the labor of twisted… art. This is way different… not nearly as gruesome."

No reply from his mother or the dinosaur. He cleared his throat then sighed. "Sorry." His ears perked, his whiskers lifted from the side of his muzzle and his brows furrowed. "I sense…" Before he could finish his sentence, a massive fireball engulfed a section of downtown. Everyone lowered their head and covered their face.

The shockwave of heat passed, rustling their fur and hair. Windows cracked on all sides and several automobiles' car alarms screeched in protest. The cacophony brought about a whimper from Tricky. Krystal patted his side and said, "That's where we're going. H'yah!" The dinosaur broke into a hard run, leaving both foxes to cling to the makeshift saddle.

_Ten minutes later…_

Marcus and Krystal dismounted Tricky and withdrew their staffs. They looked to one another then back to the large hole seemingly cut into the bunker's blast door. Krystal approached the door, examining the markings and said, "At first, I thought this must be the work of the explosion we saw… but it can't be… this metal was cut by a tool… the markings are too smooth and perfect to be from an explosion."

"That means the citizens inside the bunker are in trouble. Let's go." Marcus stepped through the large hole first. Krystal and Tricky followed. The group made their way down the narrow hall, but the walls became further apart up ahead. "It looks like the people are funneled into single file order… then when they get past a certain point, they're allowed access anywhere."

Krystal nodded in agreement. "I saw nozzles built into the walls back by the entrance. They're probably detox showers." She noted the corrugated floor. "Everyone is expected to drip dry, so the floors are porous to keep water from collecting. Thing is, these walls are dry so they probably haven't been used."

"They wouldn't need to – the city is under attack by ground forces, not chemical weapons." Young McCloud's eyes widened then lowered to his bio-scanner. "It's a good thing Theodore handed this to me before he went back to the Proteus. I'm really kinda' upset they didn't let him stay until everything was settled."

"Star," Krystal placed a paw on his shoulder then frowned. '_Marcus_,' she thought, adding an unspoken apology. "That's part of being a good team leader… utilize the team you have available – do what you can for the team that isn't available. But, first and foremost, your duty to yourself is a priority, so that you can live to finish your job."

"I told dad that I want him… and you… to help me become the best team leader I can be. Fara told me I needed to delegate work to my team more often and stop doing all the work myself… I never realized I was doing that, but she's right."

"She sure is," Krystal said. "That was your father's hardest lesson to learn." She then changed the subject. "What's on your mind? I saw your expression a minute ago… you sense something but don't see it on the scanner? I don't hear anyone or feel anything, but trust your instincts."

"My telepathy only helps to a point," he admitted. "Sometimes I listen to my heart before I listen to my mind. There's something out there."

"I've got nothing," she told him with a shrug. "Maybe you're just…"

"Get down!" Marcus grasped her arm and leapt to the floor. Tricky lowered to his belly in anticipation… nothing happened. Krystal lifted her head and looked at her son with confused eyes. He reached his paw out and pushed her head back down. Suddenly, a volley of automated gunfire panned from left to right, riddling the hallway with pockmarks. Sparks showered the immediate area and a soft whirring sound filled the hallway up ahead. The gunshots came again, panning from right, back to the left then ended on another soft whirring noise.

Marcus turned to his mother and whispered, "There must be a turret up ahead. I think we're at the edge of its optical or audio range, so it was slow to react. Your staff is charged, right?"

"We'll use the shields to move up. I don't see it, though!" She withdrew her binoculars and scanned the long hallway with them. "I see it… it's sitting on a tripod. I have an idea – how is your aim?"

"I… don't know. This sort of thing is dad's forte. I'll give it a shot, though." He aimed his staff towards the end of the hallway and laid it across his left arm, with his right paw at the hilt to keep it steady. He cocked his head to the right, peered down the metal shaft, lined up the tip with the long lay of the corridor and focused. He drew in a slow, deep breath. After a moment of aiming at something he couldn't even see, he fired the fire-blaster and watched the red glob of light disappear down the empty corridor.

Krystal hissed in victory. "Yes! You grazed the top – it tipped over and fell backwards. Its shooting at the ceiling… and now… it deactivated itself. It must have a gyro sensor built in to detect when it's lying horizontal. The power light on the side is flashing… and now it changed orange… Okay, it's in standby mode. Let's move up! Good job," she added at the end.

The trio got to their feet and hurried to the end of the hallway. The entire corridor turned right then, fifty feet ahead, it opened into a massive hub. The promenade had three layers, like the center of a shopping mall. There was a central gap – the void stretched for one hundred feet. The circular portion above their head had a glass railing around it. The lower levels went down two stories. Marcus leaned over the edge and peered straight down to the tile floor at the very bottom. "I don't see _anyone_ but I _do_ sense Katt nearby. I think she's okay but I can't be sure yet. Follow me."

"Right behind you," said Krystal, gesturing to Tricky for silence before he could offer any sort of excited reply of his own.

* * *

**Fox and Falco** pulled into a side-by-side formation. "Just like old times, eh Foxie?" Falco arched his back and craned his neck, looking down at the endless sea beneath them. "Are we getting paid for each target? Have you even talked to Bill about this stuff? Man, it's been six years – the prices of big screen TV's have come down; I want one."

Fox chuckled to himself. "I'm sure we can arrange something. If not with Bill then, at the very least, we'll figure out something with the government of Aquas – no worries there, buddy. I'm a little nervous about Star and Krystal down there."

"The kid'll be fine. I've seen him in action. He's a chip off the old block with a natural advantage. And, from what I understand, if the other version of Krystal is capable of taking over and destroying most of Lylat without getting killed… I'm sure your wife can handle herself."

A female voice joined the channel. "You have such a way with words." Fara Phoenix's ship came alongside of Falco and Fox. "You know, I think I'll paint this ship black like the first one. I was indifferent to the orange highlights – maybe I'll go for something closer to brown."

"Why brown?" asked Lombardi.

"Camouflage when flying over… heck, would it make you laugh if I went for hot pink?" She rolled her ship inverted and said, "Another convoy spotted – detaching from formation!" She pulled back on the stick, causing her fighter to dip downwards and into a vertical dive. She punched three keys beneath her left paw, transferring power to her G-Diffusing manifold. Her stabilizers drew back to reduce wind drag.

"Crimson, Vivian and Slippy here! We're engaging hostiles in the upper hemisphere above the Mendoza Sea. We're dropping from hyper-sonic… Mach _three_… Mach _two_, and… Mach _one_… wow – looks like there's a lot of scaly!" Crimson paused for a moment then said, "Let's go get'em, guys! Break formation – weapons free and all that jazz."

Fox tilted his head then replied. "Can you guys handle it? Falco or I can be there in four or five minutes."

The radio channel reopened with Crimson in mid-chuckle. "Nah – Vivian's multi-lock just defeated the first wave single-handed. I need to get one of those. Now I know what to ask for this upcoming holiday season."

"Four or five minutes," Falco reminded, adding, "Let us know as soon as the situation turns even a little. A few minutes is a _long time_ when you're in trouble mid-dogfight. Play it smart, kids." He changed the channel to a private one and said to Fox, "They're good pilots – they can handle it. Besides, Slippy has been flying for decades – he'll make sure they don't get into anything they can't handle."

"Is that a compliment for Slippy from _you, _Falco? But yeah, you're right… Iguess I'm just… being protective of Peppy's daughter and one of my oldest friends."

Falco snorted in amusement then detached from formation without announcing his flight intentions. "Don't forget Marcus' best friend. Yeah, he's Wolf's kid, but I like'em. He reminds me of _me_ without Wolf's crappy attitude." Without a further word, he broke into an attack pattern and began chasing enemies.

Fox huffed. "Yeah, Star's friend… He reminds me of _you_… funny you should say Wolf has a crappy attitude, though. That was always Wolf's biggest complaint about _you_." His eyes narrowed, zeroing in on something in the distance. "That's interesting… Is that what I think it is?" Fox brought a paw to the side of his head, adjusting the computer targeting lens above his right eye. "I've got a new target in my sights… looks like a capital ship of some sort."

Falco scoffed over the channel. "It's the sector boss. I hate bosses… they're annoying, cumbersome, and only worth _one_ kill."

Fox punched his throttle. "It's like I told Star, some ships are worth _more_ money than others. I'm going for the big boy."

"You _always_ go after the 'big boy'," said Falco then muttered, "And your kid wants to be called Marcus now, man. You're the only one who refuses to change, y'know that? Stubborn as always."

Fox remained silent, moving to engage the large enemy up ahead. Fara blazed by Falco at a high rate of speed and waved at him in passing. "Fox? Stubborn? No more than you, Wolf, and everyone else in this galaxy. Everyone likes doing things their own way… Even I have my moments of being mulish and inflexible. We can't always be right, though." She then directed her words towards McCloud and added, "Fox, it was weird for me when he said he wanted to change his name. But being obstinate is something for the young of heart… you've always been very accepting of him, from what I've read and what he's told me. Stop being pigheaded and call him by his name… think of it as a flight-handle if you want."

Fox offered an audible sigh over the radio, followed by, "Fara, wanna help me 'take out the trash' …I could use your help."

Phoenix's face lit up. "Really? Sounds like fun!" She finished off a fighter and broke pursuit from the rest of its squadron then headed towards Fox's transponder beacon. "Wow!" She mashed the afterburner button and broke into vibrant laughter. "That's a much bigger trash compactor than the last one!" she exclaimed in reference to the first combat engagement she ever flew alongside Fox.

"I don't think I can pull off that stabilizer-catch trick like last time, Fara. The Arwing II wouldn't support the force of an anti-gravity sail at that angle."

Fara offered a grin, knowing her visual was displayed on the other pilots' communication bar, above their HUD. "Believe me, I _know_ the specs of this ship inside and out… After all, I just _bought_ their maker. Ironic, though, don't you think? I was the prototype's test pilot."

Fox eased to the right, evading a pulse cannon projectile. "Seems _only fitting_, if you ask me that is!" He opened fire on the destroyer, picking off two turrets. "Let's clear the turrets off this thing then we'll sink it."

"Wait, look at the strange fins on the back corners…" Fara did as she was asked, destroying several turrets along the body of the destroyer. "Do you suppose that thing was designed with submersible aquatic capabilities?"

Fox canted his head, looking the ship over. "It would make sense to design a ship specifically for marine-theater combat. Get ready; they're maneuvering their main guns!"

"Hey, wait! They're pointing the main guns straight down towards the water!" Fara fired another round of blaster volley along the hull of the ship. A gun turret exploded – a mere flash at the center of her targeting reticule. "It's firing!" She pulled back, watching the massive cannon's blast. The shot disappeared into the brine. "What the hell is he shooting at?"

* * *

**Marcus McCloud** **stopped** in front of a force field. On the other side, he could see a command center laid out. A single Cornerian and two amphibians were at their post. A guard of Katina descent approached the young fox on the other side of the field and narrowed his eyes.

McCloud peered over his shoulder at the view screen on the wall. Just then, it changed to a vertical view, peering straight up from the center of the city. Something illuminated the dome-sky at the center of the screen. "Incoming!" shouted one of the officers from his station. "Brace for…!" The concentrated energy beam struck the dome. The entire city shook, including the bunker.

Marcus turned to his mother then frowned. "There's nothing we can do here. Let's head back towards the public sector of the bunker. I sense Katt, she's really close." He looked back to the guard whose expression showed that he was somewhat rattled by the direct attack on the city. McCloud licked his lips then asked, "We're looking for a gray-furred feline with pink highlights – ears dyed and pink frosted tips on a few strands of her hair. She's in her late forties, maybe early fifties but doesn't look…"

"No. We don't want any civilians this close to our command center. Can you please return to the public area."

Marcus cocked his head to the left. "I'm sorry, I didn't _properly introduce myself_! I'm Marcus McCloud, and this is my mother, Krystal McCloud. We're here, representing team StarFox, to save your planet. …And what is _your_ name?"

Krystal placed a paw on her son's arm. "Marcus, stop. He's just doing his job and he's nervous about losing his home. He's a family man and he feels frustrated." She guided him away from the force field and back towards a corridor leading away from the command center. "You can't let yourself become emotional in the field because that can affect your decision making. I sense he was telling the truth – he's not seen her."

"But she's so _close_."

"I sense it, too," replied his mother. She gasped then froze in her tracks. Tricky stopped and turned his head to them.

"What, guys? Did you get one of those premonition things?" He grew quiet following an immediate gesture from Krystal.

She turned back to Marcus then pointed to a nearby intersection. "This way – she's fighting."

* * *

**Katherine Monroe-Lombardi tightened her left arm around the neck of a lizard**, peering down the sight of the blaster in her right paw. "Tell your buddies to back off, tiger – else this is going to turn real dirty, real quick."

The lizard's voice was threatening. "When I…"

"SHUT UP," Katt growled into the side of his head. The other pistol in her left paw grinded against his shoulder and her arm became even tighter around his neck. "I don't care what you _think_ you'll do when you _think_ you'll escape!" She panned the pistol in her right paw from left to right to keep two other lizards at bay. "So, because I'm getting up there in age, you idiots think you could take _me_ hostage? I bet you guys didn't realize one thing… I'm the most racist anti-reptilian mammal in Lylat."

"I can't get a good shot," hissed one of the lizards to the other.

"Don't hit him," grumbled the other. "He has the card-key in his shirt pocket – if you hit it, we'll be locked out of the secured areas! Don't risk it – they could trap us with force fields from their command center. Try and aim for her head."

Katt glowered at the two Imperial soldiers across from her. She loosened her arm from the man's throat then buried her second pistol against the side of his head. "Pull the card out of your pocket." She waited for him to comply then said, "Now put it in your mouth but don't bite it." She watched him out of the corner of her eye. "They won't hit _either_ of us with a headshot now… so I either just saved your life or, at the very least, I gave your family the privilege of an open-casket funeral. It's your choice, depending on how you act."

The two frustrated lizards looked at one another. The one on the left said, "If I shoot him in the stomach, he'll bite through the card."

"I know that!" He readjusted his assault rifle then re-aimed it at her. "I'm losing my patience."

Another voice came from the other side of the room. "Hold it right there!" Both lizards glanced over their shoulders at the approaching foxes.

Katt took the upper hand, making use of the distraction. She shoved her body hard towards her hostage, bowling him to the floor then leveled her left pistol and fired both. The two armed lizards dropped to the floor from a fatal headshot. She pivoted on her heel, noted that the remaining lizard – her ex-bodyshield – dropped the card on the floor, and fired both pistols. His body stiffened for a few seconds then relaxed.

"What brings you here?" she asked of McCloud.

Marcus stepped over one of the fallen lizards and approached her. "You forgot the plush toy fighter… left it in your car," he said, trying to joke with her. "I heard Aquas was under attack – Corneria's fleet is hours away… if they're even _able_ to respond. StarFox was right around the corner. Falco is clearing the skies as we speak."

"Look, he and I had a long talk about this situation… and we've talked with Violet." She picked the card up from the ground then wiped the lizard's saliva on her shirt. "She's going to change the baby's name. But you don't have any say… she's already chosen a name."

"What is it?" he asked.

"She saw a photograph of Fox's father… he has James McCloud's eyes… and after hearing the rumor that you changed your name, she decided to name him James. We've been calling him Jamie. It doesn't matter; he's too young to know his name and we usually call him by various baby names."

Marcus nodded in understanding. "Right, like _pumpkin_, _sweetie_, and _buddy_… I'm not here to gripe about his name. I'm here to make sure no one hurts him …or Violet for that matter."

"Asper is a Marine – if anyone will protect her, it would be him. Even Falco met him when he came to visit… and liked him."

Marcus drew in a slow breath. He sensed that Katt was telling the truth, but also sensed that Violet wasn't necessarily in a relationship with this other man… just an intense friendship. He offered the feline a nod then canted his head back towards Krystal. "What was it you said about being racist towards lizards, Mrs. Lombardi?"

"Listen, Tiger, I was raised in a different time. I stole my ship from Venom and used it against them, back in the days of the Lylat War. I flew against their forces out of personal dislike for Venom. No military ordered me to fight… I just don't like reptiles." She nodded towards Krystal. "Krystal, honey, I'm glad you guys got back to Lylat safely. Welcome home. It's not the most story-book time or the fairy-tale place to see your grandchild for the first time… but they're back in the 'D' Wing. There are _two_ ways to get there. This floor is like a circle. Both ways will get to that wing. I think we should split up and clear out _both_ ways. I don't want them sneaking up on us later, if we let our guard down for a little reunion of sorts."

"Good idea," said Krystal. "We'll head right, but we're going to send Tricky with you because…" she lowered her head, nodding towards the blood stain on Katt's right leg. "I can tell by the way you've got all your weight supported on your left leg that you're in pain. Tricky has a saddle and the boney plated fan around his head can deflect stray gunshots."

Katt cut her attention to the dinosaur then nodded slowly. "Is he… tame?"

Tricky did a circle, as though he was chasing his tail, then said, "I think so! So you're Violet's mom? Why don't _you_ have wings? …Did you '_do_' a Cloud Runner?"

The feline scrunched her brows. "Do… huh? What? What's a Cloud Runner?"

Marcus glared at Tricky. "Falco is her husband! You know, Falco from our team, Tricky… _he_ is Violet's dad."

Tricky looked back at McCloud and said, "Really? I didn't even realize that. He's so laid back, and she's so…"

"Watch it," Katt interjected.

Tricky cast his gaze back at the feline and paused. "…So high-strung." He plodded across the room and lowered to his stomach. "All aboard!"

Katt reluctantly moved into the saddle. Tricky stood up and headed back towards Marcus and Krystal. A loud crunching sound filled the room and the dinosaur flinched then froze. He glanced back at his right hind leg then offered a moue of intense disgust. "Oh, man, _gross_… I stepped on one of the bad guys." He jutted his rear right foot back and shook the blood away. "They shouldn't make skulls like twigs, geeze."

Marcus winced. "Tricky, you're like… two tones!"

Tricky replied with a mock gasp. "I am _not_! I'm barely more than a single ton! …One point three… _tops_."

Krystal bit her lower lip, looking at the rather grim scene of the crushed lizard head then said, "That's easily enough to crush that man's skull… please, just watch where you walk. I shudder to think how dangerous you are to be around, if Fox and I wanted to set up camp on Sauria… I wouldn't want to be stepped on."

Katt simply shook her head. "It suites me just fine. The more reptiles he crushes, the more I like him. Giddy up or whatever."

Tricky quirked a brow. "Hey, _I'm_ a reptile."

"You're a dinosaur – your kind evolved in two directions… one became a lizard like the ones from Venom. The rest became birds, like Falco. And I married Falco… C'mon, hon, let's go – I want to make sure my daughter is okay."

Tricky nodded and headed off. "Okay. Let's hurry – I want to bash up some more SharpClaw-looking guys."

Marcus shook his head and turned back towards his mother then nodded to the other direction. "I guess we're going _this way_. …James. I'm glad they're going to change his name. I really just want to see him, to be honest. There are a lot of soldiers in this area."

Krystal nodded and placed her free paw against his shoulder, with her staff in her other. "How many can you sense? Clear your mind and listen for the different patterns in the area."

"A lot, mom. I can't tell what direction they're coming from, so I don't know how many are in _our_ path. I just hope Katt will be okay with Tricky."

"They'll be fine," said Krystal. "Come on." She headed off down the hallway opposite from the one Tricky and Katt took. "I've not been in combat for a long time. I kind of look forward to the excitement. Heck, I remember getting hyper at the thought of going on a mission with your father. This is _our_ first ground mission together, Marcus. It's been a blast so far!"

Marcus grinned at her. "That's only because we're winning. They're not putting up much of a fight yet. I'm surprised you guys are considering retirement."

"You'll love it when we retire," said Krystal as the two continued down the bunker corridor. "You'll get the carrier and the cruiser, run around the system and see lots of things. And me? I'll grow a flower garden in a box with dirt outside of the kitchen window. I'll stop being a soldier of fortune, and start being a wife… a woman… a girly-girl. I'll wear a sundress to the mall and go shopping and walk with Fox at the local park, feed bread to the ducks by the lake…" She thrust her left arm out and stopped. "There's someone up ahead – they're hostile." She twirled her staff and brought it to the ready.

"Make that _two_," said Marcus, sensing a second opponent not far from the first. "Search team," he whispered. "They're scouts… Around the next corner." They ran to the intersection then stopped and peered down the perpendicular path. Krystal knelt down and eased her head around the turn while Marcus stood on his toes, gazing in the same direction. The two foxes remained silent. He felt her back against his chest as she backed away – he moved with her then put his back against the wall. "Now what?" he whispered.

Krystal returned with a dull glare. '_Must you speak?_' She tilted her head and cocked her brows. In return, Marcus furrowed his own and looked down. Krystal reached her paw up and lifted his chin. '_You're a telepath – I'm a telepath. Let's act like it, young man. Now, this is what we'll do… I want to make this quick and simple. They're facing away from us… we'll go out there, fire-blasters blazing, then continue on our way. We'll have to be quick so they don't radio for help._' She paused then brought a paw to her ear.

The svelte blue vixen peered around the corner and listened in on the conversation. Her eyes widened then she turned to her son with a ghastly expression. '_Their forces are being overrun down here, so their destroyers are attacking the dome in an attempt to simply flood it! They're trying to crack the dome so the water pressure will crush us! We have to hurry, find Violet and the baby, and get back to the ships!_'

Marcus thrust his paws in the air as if to accentuate his next un-spoken statement. '_Mom, we don't have the room in a one-seat fighter! Besides, we're in a bunker! It's safer in _here_ than out in the city, trying to get to our ships! That's what these bunkers were designed for… flooding emergencies and such._'

Krystal sighed and ran her fingers back through her hair. '_You're right… we are safer here than heading back to the ships. But you saw the _hole_ in the bunker door… the water _will_ fill this bunker in due time. Force fields are electronic… how long will an electric energy field hold back the pressure? We're talking billions of gallons of water… They'll eventually fail._'

'_Mom_,' he thought, placing his staff against the wall. He put his paws on her shoulders and gazed in her deep green eyes. His own mismatched blue and green orbs were kind and tender. '_Dad is up there, right now, making sure that won't happen_.' The dome shook again, like an earthquake. A coat of dust fell from the ceilings. He closed his eyes, sighed softly then silently told her, '_Please, just have faith_.'

She nodded in reply. Marcus picked up his staff then offered her a slight grin. "Ready?" he whispered. "Set…" They nodded to one another in unison and broke into a sprint around the corner. They fired their staff blasters, bowling down both lizard soldiers. Each man landed on his side, went for their guns and rolled over, opening fire.

Krystal activated her staff's shield by placing the hilt on the ground. She knelt down to stay beneath its bubble. Meanwhile, Marcus handled his like a bo-staff and thrust one end out, striking the right lizard in his face. He then kicked the weapon from the left lizard's hands and thrust his staff into the air.

The younger fox brought the end of his jeweled cane down into the ground. The super quake ability caused a magnificent shockwave, throwing both lizards against the bulkhead on the left and right side. They dropped back to the floor in pain. He turned the pole horizontal and pressed it against the nearest lizard's neck then lifted the man. Marcus hissed against the side of the reptile's head. "Radio the base and tell them you guys _just _secured the command center – the city is now under your control."

"Do what!" exclaimed the startled lizard.

Krystal thrust her staff out. The tip struck the other lizard just as he was pulling his gun up. Using her inner chi, the kinetic energy transferred through her body, using low level telekinesis to throw the other soldier. His body launched up into the air, struck the ceiling and glanced off the wall, hurdling down the hallway several hundred feet. He struck the facing wall where the corridor ended then dropped to the ground, motionless.

Marcus turned his attention back to his new hostage. "Radio your superiors… tell them you've _won_."

The defiant Imperial guard snorted. "I'm already going to die, whether it's from water or from _you_." He struggled in pain from the metal pole against his throat. "Just break my neck and get it over with!"

Krystal placed the tip of her staff against the lizard's nose and tilted her head in confusion at his readiness to die. "Wouldn't you rather be a prisoner?"

"Are you insane?" demanded the soldier in his best Cornerian. "If I die, the military pays my family forever."

Krystal leaned forward, coming face to face with him. "Xani, ral dashu, clin'tok? Dokho rolsh, Xani? Xani!" She repeated the last word expectantly, in the same way she started the question. "Answer me, Xani! Ral dashu, clin'tok?"

"Yes, I want to see my family again, if I had that choice!" shouted the lizard, still speaking Cornerian under the assumption that Krystal and her son were anything but Cerinian. "But I want them to live comfortably! Dying in combat gives them that! So make it quick like you did for my associate!"

Marcus withdrew the pistol he took from his Arwing and placed the barrel against the lizard's snout. "No, you're our hostage. We'll stun you and turn you in if you don't call them off. Pick up the radio right now. Trust me, you won't drown. We brought enough snorkels for _everyone_; we're prepared for this mission, aren't you? And yes, the stunner will hurt before you faint."

The lizard reached for the radio on his belt, narrowing his eyes. He mashed his thumb down on the button. Then, in the native Venom language, said, "Command, this is Sergeant Auyuer. My unit has taken control of their emergency bunker. We've overrun the command center and can use the civilians here as hostages; leverage against Corneria. Call off the attack – we've turned this situation around and have achieved full victory."

A reply came over the radio in a thick accent native to Venom's southern-most continent. "Change of plans, Sergeant. Hold the capital hostage to negotiate with the hostiles currently attacking us! The StarFox squadron has decimated our fleet! There are SIX pilots! Our main destroyers are dropping into the sea faster than we can account for them! The situation is critical up here!"

Marcus glanced at his mother with a grin. "They were trying for a last ditch effort to crush this city… That was close." Two gunshots lanced out, striking the bulkhead near the fox's head. He gasped, shifting his weight to use the lizard as a body shield. Again, Krystal activated her staff's shield. Two rounds ricocheted off the blue aura. An energy weapon struck the field next and fizzled out.

The lizards at the end of the hall were quick to radio command. Their words were heard over the radio unit on Marcus' hostage. "It's a trick! Sergeant Auyuer is a hostage to the enemy! He's been compromised; I repeat, continue the strike against the city!"

A gunshot rang out, striking the struggling lizard square in the chest. He slumped against the pole in Marcus' paws. Two more blaster rounds ripped through the air but Krystal shifted her staff, using her shield to protect her son. The radio chirped again. "Copy that! Auyuer is under enemy influence! Currently, we don't have any more destroyers in rage to attack the capital city dome! Recommend setting explosive charges at key structural areas inside the city!"

Marcus snarled in frustration and shoved the body against the wall then knelt down behind his mother. He picked up the radio from the floor and, in Cornerian, said, "The Sergeant is dead. This is Marcus McCloud, son of Fox McCloud. StarFox has air superiority, but we also have several pilots down here – we've overrun your ground forces. There won't be any structural attacks, Venom Command. Would you like to negotiate the return of your surviving soldiers? We're ready to make a trade according to convention protocol. We have a list of terms."

"Cornerian!" shouted the commander over the radio. "Venom does not recognize your terms! We have reinforcements in the next sector! We're too numerous! StarFox will eventually run low on fuel and need to retreat! You're in no position to make demands!"

"Corneria's forces will arrive by the time your reinforcements show up! You said so yourself, your destroyers are dropping faster than you can count them! It's time to retreat – you can pick your soldiers up from a Cornerian prison after they're tried for war crimes for directly attacking a civilian city."

"Do not surrender," shouted the officer on the other end of the radio channel. "The Oikonny Empire will make your families wealthy! Fight to the death for honor!"

Marcus, now frustrated even more, threw the walkie-talkie on the floor. He broke into a sprint against the non-verbal protest of his mother. He lifted his staff then slammed it into the ground and powered the entire rod. The charged blue energy shot down the metal shaft then suddenly propelled him at a high rate of speed, horizontally through the hallway. His shoulder connected with one of the two remaining lizards but he managed to bowl over both with his flailing body.

Krystal hurried up the hall and activated her freeze weapon on the nearest lizard. It iced over in seconds then she kicked him in the torso – he shattered into ice shards. She twirled her weapon then brought the tip against the second lizard's snout before he could fully recover from Marcus' powered shoulder tackle attack.

The young fox sat up next to the injured reptile and placed the tip of his own cane against the side of the man's head. "Pick up the radio and call for a full retreat from the entire dome."

The lizard sneered. "You heard my commanding officer… we do not recognize your demands, Cornerian!"

Krystal lowered the tip of her staff to the center of the lizard's chest. "Then maybe you'll recognize this." She activated the super quake feature of the staff. The un-equalized force launched his body into the air. He bounced off the wall, crashed to the floor and rolled for several hundred feet. Slowly, Krystal turned to her son and shrugged. "He was being stubborn… I… guess I got agitated." She provided an innocent looking smile. "Let's hurry." Then offered him a paw and pulled him to his feet. "That was daring… and stupid. And reckless. Falco would have liked it… maybe even your father," she noted with a chuckle. "We don't have far to go."

* * *

**Violet fired her guns then ducked back down** beneath the slab of concrete that fell away from the wall. It was just tall enough to protect her carriage, too. She checked the power cell of both guns. "I'm starting to get a little low, Asper!" she shouted to him. "I hope mom… or _someone_ gets here soon! There are more than I can count!"

Asper fired off a three-round burst then said, "Fall back. We'll have to figure something out; our best bet right now is to evacuate before they can pin us down!" Violet watched him slink across the wall then reach around the corner and lob a grenade he found on one of the bodies. The fragmentation explosive detonated with a deep '_thunk_'. A Venom lizard dove towards them to avoid the bursting object.

She watched him in horror, yet impressed by his swift combat training. Asper used his right wing, slamming the guard up against the wall. He grabbed the soldier by the throat then choke slammed him into the floor. He pushed the gun in his other hand against the back of the man's head and fired. One round did the job; the soldier's body convulsed for a few seconds…

The hybrid Marine reached around the corner, judging by a shadow on the floor, and closed his fist around the neck of another Imperial soldier. He lifted the elite guard into the air and pivoted to build momentum. With a gasp, she watched her friend hurl the Venom man into the wall face first. Asper eased his free hand overtop the Imperial's weapon then forced his knee into his enemy's gut. The uniformed lizard doubled over with his wrist extended. Asper brought his elbow down against the lizard's arm, which forced the limb to un-extend. He guided the guard's gun back so that the barrel brushed his scaly cheek. Asper strained against the resistant guard but managed to place his hand over the soldier's trigger finger. By means of physical coercion, the soldier blew his own brains out.

Asper shoved his body forward so that it slumped to the floor but not without first gracefully disarming the weapon from the soldier's hand. He checked the chamber then groaned and threw the weapon across the room in irritation. "One round left – pathetic." He turned to face Violet and asked, "Are you two all right?"

She offered him a nod. "We're well, yes. There will be more of those men – we should move quickly." She fell in step behind Asper, who headed to the nearest door. The hallway ended at a "Y"-shaped split. Katt emerged from the left fork with two un-silenced pistols. Violet gasped in shock and relief. "Mom!"

"This damn place is overrun! We're running out of options!" She approached Asper first, said, "Thanks for keeping my two babies safe – you're welcome in my home any time… if it's still standing, back on Corneria." The feline turned to Violet and the two embraced.

Violet glanced over her mother's shoulder; her eyes widened. She locked her gaze with that of King Tricky and blinked. "What the hell is _he_ doing here? If… if _he_'s here, then that means…"

Footfalls echoed off the walls. Two shadows came from the right fork in the hallway. Marcus emerged first, followed closely by his mother. They stopped at the forked intersection without a word. Violet made eye contact with McCloud then sighed. "I'm not exactly pleased about my father taking _your_ side of things, Star… You have good timing, though. I'm not going to deny that we'll need your help."

Katt approached Krystal, took her by the wrist and quickly led her to the veiled stroller. She lifted the swaddled youth into her paws and handed the boy over. "Krystal, we grandmothers have to stick together and rescue our family. But take a moment to hold him while we figure out our next move."

The svelte vixen drew the slumbering baby into her arms and gazed fondly upon his face. "Marcus, Violet… he's beautiful. I…" She trailed off, probing the baby's mind, bonding with him in the cultural Cerinian fashion.

Marcus glanced over his shoulder at Tricky who nodded approvingly. The fox turned his head back to his mother and approached her in reverence. He placed a paw on her shoulder and peered over the cotton hood. He was speechless. His stomach tingled and his heart pounded. His paws shook from the adrenaline. Somewhere in the back of his mind, a surreal touch found his back… a comforting paw drew him closer. He blinked away tears, which rolled over the dyed fur of his cheeks. They collected at the tips of the fur-strands beneath his muzzle then left small round dots on the baby's blue blanket. The paw on his back disappeared only to reappear against his face. Their thumb brushed over his cheek, drying the side of his maw.

Violet's voice broke the silence. "Touch him, Star. …Marcus. It's all right – I won't deny you a personal moment with your son."

Krystal passed her grandchild into the arms of her eager son. He swallowed hard and accepted the baby carefully, drawing the child against his chest. His heart raced and his rigid stature calmed somewhat. He lowered his face and brushed his nose against the feather-haired foxling. His whiskers brushed against the child's face, drawing in his scent.

Violet glanced at the floor, still standing besides Asper. "My father's alive, so… we decided on _James_ _S. McCloud_. His middle name is _Star_ – I don't care if you hate it, _I_ happened to like it. I made the changes to the certificate a few days ago and I'm not about to change it again, just because you don't like it."

In a soft whisper, Marcus replied, "It's a _fine_ name. I respect your decision… and… thank you for this opportunity."

Violet kept her voice firm, even though a large part of her heart felt emotional attachment towards the man holding her son. "I won't have him gallivanting around on your wild adventures." She paused then said, "He'll go to a normal school and live a normal life. When he graduates at a normal age, he'll make his own decisions… whether he goes into the academy or he decides to go to a normal college will be completely up to him. I won't home-school him and I won't force _Lylat_ on him. He'll lead a better life if that hero-crap isn't _forced_ down his throat before he's even old enough to understand it. I won't ask for child support because my mother and I don't need your financial help… but you can visit him whenever you want. Just…" She sighed and shrugged. "Make sure that you do… don't put your damn team above visitation. Make your son a priority – you couldn't do that for me, so _please_… I want you to _try_ for _him_."

Marcus nodded in silence, his face still lowered, cheek to cheek with the baby. No one else said anything – even Tricky remained quiet. The bunker shook, bringing the seriousness of the situation back to light. He drew in another deep breath then lifted his head and passed the child back to Krystal. He lifted the backside of his paws to his face, rubbing his eyes then said, "Listen… I… I think, in light of the fact that StarFox now has control of the skies… we should head back to the flight hanger. Our fighters' plasma engines work under water…"

Katt lifted a paw. "We know, StarFox attacked the Anglars under water… most fighters have had that capability for several decades, Tiger. But remember, the four of us won't have room with you or Krys – not just because Tricky is taking up the hold on one of your ships, but because it's not safe to subject a baby to…"

The fox pivoted on his heel and returned the gesture, lifting a paw. "Mrs. Lombardi," he said then ended on a pause. For years, he knew her as 'Miss Monroe' because everyone thought Falco died with his team. He licked his lips then continued. "I propose we utilize one of the Venom Transporter ships used by the troops who invaded this city. We should leave before Venom reinforcements arrive – I'm sure they'll call my bluff and show up before Corneria's thinly-spread fleet can make an appearance. You guys are _all_ invited to stay as guests on GreatFox until we can get you guys to Katina, Fortuna or …_something_."

"I'm stationed on Katina," said Asper. "I own a suburban home – rarely even use it. The furniture is wrapped and the floors are covered in plastic. It's certainly clean enough for a baby and you guys can stay as long as you like until Corneria is deemed safe. I live on base for free and the house is paid off, so I assure you guys… it won't be any trouble."

Violet glanced at her mother then back at the hybrid reptile. "No objections here… We would appreciate it."

Marcus looked to Katherine, somewhat surprised. Katt nodded to Asper and said, "You've been too kind to us." She glanced at the McCloud's and added, "And to you both… thank you – we accept the offer to take us to Katina. And you'll see me around GreatFox from time to time… Falco and I have agreed to take things slow; it's been six years apart… but we're going to stay married. He's going to stay in the cockpit for a little while longer. Don't let my husband kill himself up there, Marcus McCloud. I mean it. I won't let you hear the end of it if anything happens to him."

"Yes, ma'am. You're always welcome on GreatFox."

Asper placed a hand against the small of Violet's back and announced, "We should hurry. There's no use dawdling around this bunker and I'm sure there are still a few hostiles somewhere between here and our ride home." He turned his gaze towards Katt.

Marcus blinked then cut his gaze back to Katt once more. He didn't sense _any_ racist notions or feelings from Katt, even when Asper placed his hand on Violet's back. The entire situation made him feel awkward. A sharp tone filled the back of his mind. '_Stop it. Your son is telepathic – don't subject him to jealousy or any of that nonsense. Think about your relationship with Fara. Violet has every right to move on. He's even half-avian. Let her go, Marcus._'

He closed his eyes for a moment and thought, '_As racist as Katt is towards reptiles, she's more accepting of this man Asper than she ever was towards ME_. _It doesn't seem fair_.'

Krystal approached the boy, still holding the baby in her arms. '_Perhaps she was initially feeling awkward about Violet's relationship with a McCloud… her husband was gallivanting around Lylat with a McCloud and disappeared… thought to be dead. Perhaps she harbored a little ill-will towards you, thinking you might bring about the same fate for her daughter… but now that Falco is back, things are different. On the other hand, this Asper fellow has a stable job, can easily support them and is half-avian. And we _all_ know how Katt feels about avians._"

Marcus tilted his head in silence. '_True, she married one. Strange, though… all the years I've been with Violet and I was never actually sure if Falco and Katt ever _officially_ married until recently. After we get back, I want to take Tricky home and go relax. Hopefully Corneria can handle what's left of Venom. We trashed half their fleet and sunk their flagship battle cruiser. I want to finish up at the academy and train with my team. If we ever see that damn bio-weapon again, I don't want to need someone else's help in defeating it_.'

Krystal approached Violet and offered the baby back to his mother then kissed the side of her purple-furred face. "He's wonderful, Violet. Congratulations on such a beautiful baby. He'll grow into a fine young man and I'm sure you'll make a fantastic mother. I'm here if you need anything – for the baby or otherwise."

Violet drew the child back into her arms and said, "When he wakes up later on, I want you to try and …scan his thoughts or… whatever it is that you do… I'll need your help in finding out what makes him so fussy sometimes."

Krystal offered a wry grin. "You don't need my help – your initial maternal instincts were already spot on, Violet. He was suffering an allergic reaction to the high iron content in some of the regular formulas on the market. You were right to try other diets. The iron is hard on his little system – constipation will make any baby very fussy."

Her eyes widened. "You learned all that from just holding him while he was asleep?"

The vixen leaned forward and brushed her muzzle against Violet's ear then whispered, "Marcus was the same way – I learned what to look for in the baby's mind. You must have a pretty singing voice, because his little head is simply full of music."

Violet blushed and nodded slowly. The bunker shook again. She withdrew from Krystal, turned and placed the baby into the carriage. Her eyes flitted to the dinosaur then narrowed. "Can I trust you to carry us?"

Asper gestured to Katt's leg where dried blood soaked through the dark fabric. "Both of you _and_ your mother. She may act like she's tough, but that stain on her pants tells me that it would be easier on her if she didn't have to walk."

Tricky approached them then stopped and knelt down on his tummy. He lifted his head to Violet and offered an expectant look. "Since you were always kind enough to fill up my feed bowl back when you were on GreatFox a few weeks ago, could you be swell enough to help me scratch an itch underneath my translator? I've not taken this thing off in, like, a month."

Violet smirked, knelt down and removed the translator from the dinosaur's arm then replaced it on his other arm. She turned away from him, looking somewhat humiliated, then lifted her right foot and used her talons against his thick skin. She folded her arms and lowered her ears in reply to the joyful noises Tricky made. After a moment, she said, "Can we go now?"

Katt detached the baby carriage from the stroller base and carried it over to Tricky. She slid into the saddle and used the car seat tether to anchor the baby carrier to the harness straps. Once completely secure, she gave a tug on the nylon fastenings and scooted up to make sure her daughter had room. She withdrew the two pistols from her belt, removed the battery packs and discarded the guns. "Violet, I saw your guns have silencers – hand them to me. Both of these batteries have full charge and I don't wanna deafen little Jaye."

Violet climbed into the saddle behind her mother. She passed her pistols and the activator ring forward then hooked her arms around the feline's waist. The hybrid folded her wings behind her back and offered a pleading expression to Marcus' mother. "Mrs. McCloud, please come with us – we could use a telepath to ensure we avoid enemy encounters. We can't risk endangering the baby."

Krystal nodded and turned to her son. "See you at the hanger." Then, telepathically, she added, '_Do not start a pissing contest with that Marine. Asper considers himself her friend, even if she has taken a fancy to him. I know how you men can be and I don't want you stooping to that level. Your father STILL feels the need to try and get a one-up on a male friend from my past and it's been twenty-five years_.'

Marcus hugged her quickly, patted her firmly on the back then relinquished the hug and grinned. '_That's because he feels the same way I do… Panther Caruso is an idiot_.' He withdrew the blaster rifle from the holster that held his staff against his spine and nodded. "Take care of them, mom. I'll see you soon. And don't go worrying about me…" He canted his head towards Asper and said, "I have a Marine to protect me," then grinned.

Tricky turned about and headed down the hallway. Krystal walked besides them. After a moment they were gone. McCloud nodded to Asper and switched off the safety on his gun. "Do you always carry a bunch of Venom assault rifles on your shoulder?"

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Yes." He thought better on the concise reply and shrugged. "Do you always carry a fancy walking stick on your back?"

"I appreciate the fact that you're very protective of them," said the fox. "I hope we can be friends."

"I don't just protect them," said Asper. "I _respect_ them. They're women – I can't _not_ protect them. I'm fond of that girl, Mister McCloud. If we can be friends, that would put me at ease. I'm not one for drama."

"Good to hear," said Marcus, checking his weapon's power cell. "And neither of those women strike you as the dramatic types? You _are_ protective of them."

"They're both emotional," replied the hybrid lizard. "And it took a few days to erase Miss Katherine's doubts, because of her dislike for Venom… but an emotional woman doesn't necessarily create drama if the man in her life doesn't reciprocate it… that's how my father was able to work things out with my emotional mother, who acted as though her rebellious love for another species was the only relationship in existence. I'm used to it… and yes, I can't help but feel protective over the female gender – I'm hardwired that way. Now that introductions are aside, let's get out of here."

Amused by Asper's traditionalist male personality, Marcus pondered for a moment then asked, "If Corneria were to start offering Special Ops programs, would you be interested in training?"

"I sure as hell would." Asper checked his own weapons then nodded down another hallway. "They'll be taking the safest possible route… we need to do the exact opposite and draw all hostiles towards us, so they have a better chance. Are you ready to come under fire, Mister McCloud?"

Marcus nodded. Then, to amuse himself, he pondered how Asper would react to having someone like Fara Phoenix as his Special Operations training coordinator. "Say, ever have a female military instructor before?"

"I'm very simple, Sir… men fight to protect the women. Women nurture and cultivate the next generation of men for continued protection. It's a never-ending cycle. Women make good mothers, great lovers, wonderful friends and even make good leaders. But a female General still needs the protection of her troops, right?"

"Sure thing," returned Marcus with a firm nod. "The General is a friend of mine – I bet I could convince him to start a Special Ops program now that there are political tensions between Venom and Corneria again… would you be interested in training for that?"

"Yeah – I've always wanted some sort of Special Forces group. This way," he said with a cant of his head.

Again, Marcus grinned inwardly. He knew Bill would only consider one person to start training a covert-ops team… Someone who already had such training and a few years of experience doing it… Fara Phoenix. The thought of seeing Violet's new beau struggling to learn how to blow things up from a woman… it downright sounded funny to the fox. "I know all the right people and, believe me, the time is right… I'll talk to them when we get out of here… any friend of Violet Lombardi is a friend of mine – I'll submit your name to be one of the first people to train…"

Asper nudged an emergency exit door ajar and peeked out. "Hmm, this leads to the sewer system. We'll go out in ten second intervals then you can follow me up the ladder to a manhole. I'll check out the streets then we'll head through the commercial district." He pushed the door open a little more then asked, "So anyhow, who would train a Special Operations group? The last person to have that sort of training is probably too old to keep up with people my age."

Marcus moved to the door and nodded for Asper to make his move first. "Bill would know _just_ who to hire for that position. Don't worry about a thing… Okay, let's do this!"

The winged lizard darted through the emergency exit door and sprinted up a set of concrete stairs. At the top, he knelt down, aimed his weapon from left to right then took off down a corrugated walkway above a cesspool of sludge. He located a metal ladder ascending up to the street level then stopped and knelt.

The telepathic pilot took a breath to ready himself mentally. He bolted through the blast door and took the steps two at a time. Behind him, the heavy metal door to the bunker slammed shut and locked itself. Marcus leapt from the last step and hit the metallic ground running. He came to a stop at the bottom of the ladder then turned around and covered the underground section with his weapon. He lifted his free paw, made a fist then gestured for Asper to move again.

The lizard squatted down then leapt straight into the air. He spread his wings and flapped them hard. The vertical push sent him more than halfway up the ladder. He closed his free hand around a metal rung then made his way to the top. Using his gun barrel, he nudged the manhole up just enough to check the immediate vicinity for hostiles.

Marcus cupped his free paw to his muzzle and, in a somewhat loud whisper, hissed, "It's clear – I sense _zero_ enemy forces but keep an eye out for sentries 'n turrets. I saw one earlier."

The manhole cover scraped against the pavement in noisy protest. Asper eased his head up and scouted the area for potential snipers. Satisfied, he climbed up onto the street and headed for a nearby alley. A few seconds later, Marcus followed. He replaced the manhole cover then moved to the alley and cleared his mind.

"The nearest enemy patrol is a few blocks from here. I hear three…no, _four_ distinct thought patterns."

Asper nodded. "Okay, then this is the plan… first, we have to get their attention. We'll open fire but keep running then we'll fall back and fortify our position. They'll radio in because that's a military procedure – they have to report when they're engaging hostiles. That will draw attention away from Violet and Company's route. Then, we'll take'em down and move on to the next group. Ready?"

McCloud offered a 'thumbs up' gesture then told the reptile, "Save for the part about shooting them, this is kinda like what Red and I used to do for entertainment. We'd terrorize street gang groups or antagonize Venom patrol forces on Katina before the military forced them all the way off the planet."

"Okay, so that tells me you _know_ how to evade when drawing enemy fire. We'll wait until they radio their engagement protocol then we'll have a short window of time to ice these guys. We'll have to move on right away before other forces can arrive. That way, we keep them in motion."

"Wait, hold on." Marcus lifted his left paw and closed his eyes. He opened his mind to the disturbance he heard in his frontal lobe. Aware of everything around him, he could see the image of himself adjacent to Asper, who held his weapon in his left hand and closed his right one into a fist. Further out, a group of lizards were arguing with one another. Beyond that, a middle-aged couple cowered in fear. McCloud did his best to focus… the image cleared and he saw the Imperial lizards standing in a circle around them. His eyes snapped open. "Dammit, we've got to attack _now_; they're about to execute two people… go, go!"

Both men broke into a sprint at the end of the alley and ran up the street towards the Venom guards. True to McCloud's word, four soldiers stood in a circle around two mammals, kneeling in the lane. The man reached for his wife's paw, waiting for the end to come.

Asper fired a three-round burst, striking the lizard on the far left. Marcus, on the other hand, refused to fire a gun from such a distance. The two hostages dropped to the ground, hearing gunshots. They put their paws over their heads in fear. Meanwhile, the three remaining lizards turned to face their attackers. One of them shouted something into his radio.

"That's the cue!" cried Marcus. "He's reporting," the fox huffed then continued, "that they're being engaged by the enemy! Let's get'em!" His eyes widened, seeing the sudden twinkling of gunfire up ahead. He reached his left paw over his shoulder, grasped the cane and pulled it out. He bowled Asper down then pushed the hilt of the staff into the street. Several shells bounced off the blue field, followed by two blaster rounds. The third lizard fired his weapon – seven fist-sized nails struck the shield then clattered on the ground.

Asper sat up, somewhat startled. "That thing has a shield built into it? Why didn't we give it to Violet?"

Marcus rolled his eyes. "Why, did you want to look like a pincushion right now?" He watched as the three lizards approached them. The fox licked his lips in apprehension but felt relief seeing the middle-aged couple get up and run. Forgotten, the two Cornerians disappeared into the nearest alley. He turned his attention back to Asper and said, "My mother has a staff just like this. Violet is _fine_. Get ready – these guys are going to unload their entire clip on this shield… as soon as they need to reload, I'll drop the shield and we'll open fire."

"I'm ready!" The Marine pulled a service pistol with his right hand.

The three enemy lizards surrounded them and opened fire on the small blue bubble. It quavered and rippled but held up against the abuse. As soon as the reptiles' weapons clicked on empty, Marcus lowered the shield and brought the end of the staff up. Using the fire blaster setting, a globe of flame raced from the tip, striking the first Imperial soldier in the face. Asper fired his rifle and his pistol, dispatching the other two men in unison.

They stood up, now engulfed by silence. Asper replaced the pistol on his hip and raised his rifle towards the sky. "I won't make fun of your walking stick anymore." The radio used by one of the dead lizards roared to life with a string of quickly-spoken gibberish. Asper brought his hand to his chin, rubbing his jaw-line thoughtfully. "Hmm…"

"I couldn't help but notice you hit the first guy with three shots… from a ridiculously long distance. I won't make fun of your…" Marcus peered over at the three dangling rifles from Asper's shoulder then cocked a brow. "Okay, maybe I will… why don't you remove the magazines and use just one?"

Asper shrugged nonchalantly. "When one goes empty in a firefight, I don't have enough time to reload. So, I shoulder a few. When one runs out, I dispose of the gun, pull up another and fire it." He knelt over one of the bodies and removed a grenade from a hook on the soldier's torso. "This will come in handy. Let's head back in the general direction of the hanger where you arrived. I have a feeling the remaining lizards changed their mind – if they pull out before we can get our hands on a transport ship, we're stranded."

Both men turned back towards the outskirts and began jogging. Marcus couldn't read him very clearly and so he asked, "What makes you think Venom decided to bolt after all that crap about fighting to the death?"

"Didn't you hear the reply over that guy's walkie-talkie after he announced our presence?"

McCloud shook his head. "I heard it go off after we took them down but I didn't catch the message. It just sounded like gibberish. Why?"

"They announced an emergency executive order to fall back," said Asper, adding, "They said, 'The Civil War has officially ended – return to Venom and regroup.' This might be good – maybe the Venom rebel faction assassinated Oikonny and the attack is over."

"I doubt we're that lucky," said Marcus as the two raced down the streets. He concentrated as best he could, considering he was running. "I don't sense any nearby enemies. That's the second time these guys pulled a huge large-scale retreat! First Eladard and now here… so far, Venom has only been good for one thing… running away from a fight!"

"No arguments here," replied Asper. "Let's hurry!"

Marcus' headset communicator beeped from an incoming transmission. He replaced the staff into its holster and tapped a button on the side of the outdated unit. "McCloud here! …Mom! Say again?" He paused for a moment. "Okay, we'll escort them, then! …What? Are you sure? Okay, I guess he won't mind – I'll see you on GreatFox!" The young vulpine put a paw out and reached for Asper's arm, saying, "Hey, hold up a second!"

They both stopped in the street. Marcus drew a deep breath to slow his racing heart then cleared his throat and said, "Change of plans, man. They're taking the Bathyscaphe to the surface. Mom is going to escort them with her ship; Tricky is in her cargo hold. The GreatFox Flying Fortress has entered the atmosphere and landed in the ocean. They're going to board it directly and have the rest of StarFox land, because everyone _is_ low on fuel. Venom is withdrawing from the entire sector…"

Asper froze. "They want me to climb into your cargo hold and have you fly us back to the surface?" He offered a frown and folded his arms.

"Wow, and here I'm supposed to be the telepathic one… yeah, is it that obvious?" He suddenly felt sorry for the guy but couldn't sense why the hybrid felt so reluctant. "Are you claustrophobic?"

"Hardly! …Just a little." He tightened his jaw and clinched his right fist. "Come on, I'll be fine. Let's go."

Marcus tilted his head and a grin spread across his muzzle. "Are you kidding? A bonafide grade-A killing machine like yourself? …Afraid of cramped quarters? Man, you'll be fine. I have a gravity diffuser – you won't be jostled around in there. The hanger is back this way… let's go home."

They followed the street to the next intersection and made a right then followed it all the way down to the transportation building. Asper radiated with extreme discomfort. Although it wasn't visible on his face, every fiber in his body was ill-at-ease. His powerful dislike for the arrangement became overpowering to Marcus.

Finally, the fox turned to him and said, "Calm down! I can't even hear myself think – you're completely stressed out." He opened the front door and followed Asper into the lobby. Three metal clicks caused his ears to perk up. Marcus turned his head to the right, his eyes widening at the sight of three gun barrels. A trio of Venom guards had them at gunpoint. Marcus withdrew his pistol and rifle, slowly, tossing them to the floor. "…Crap." He stepped away from the weapons, moving left of Violet's new beau.

Asper removed his three rifles and placed the one in his left hand on the ground. He used his foot and pushed them towards the enemy then locked his fingers together behind his head. "You couldn't sense these guys, man?"

The fox threw his paws into the air. "I couldn't hear _anything_ over you bottling up all that whining over a little cargo space. Seriously, it's like asking me to listen for footsteps sneaking up on us while we're at a concert." His incredulous expression brought about a growl from the adjacent man.

"Maybe if you'd have told me the rules of how that crap works… wait, come to think of it, Violet said your mother never had that trouble!"

McCloud turned away from Asper, facing the exit door. "I'm half-Cornerian and I never went to a Cerinian school to learn how to use that sense like _she_ did, so GEE! I'm _so_ sorry!" He turned to the right, keeping Asper and the lizards at his back, the door on his left. His eyes closed and he focused his breathing.

"Why don't you _face me_ when you're shouting at me," cried the hybrid avian, much to the surprise of all three Imperial guards. "And if you don't put your paws behind your head, they're going to put a bullet in the back of that thick-ass skull FOR you!" Asper cut his gaze to the far right, glancing at the positioning of the soldiers over his shoulder.

The exit door was to his immediate left with Marcus standing in front of him, facing away. Over his left and right shoulder the two soldiers collected all the weapons then stood back up. The one besides the wall slung the rifles over his shoulder. The third lizard, directly behind Asper, lowered his weapon in amusement and said, "Let these two idiots fight one another – we'll kill the survivor."

Marcus pivoted on his heel and threw a hard right hook. Asper knelt, causing McCloud's fist to strike the center lizard in the eye. Having just taken a moment to meditate first, he was able to draw from his inner chi. Using his mother's fighting technique, Dahn Daju, the kinetic energy displaced from his fist and transferred into the Imperial's body.

The lizard flew through the air like a ragdoll. Asper opened his wings, forcefully striking the two remaining soldiers behind his left and right shoulder. He remained in a crouched position, putting his hands out to Marcus, palms facing upwards.

The pilot stepped into the offered hand and withdrew his staff. Asper catapulted him up and back. He performed a loose somersault then brought the staff down, horizontally, striking both dazed guards in the forehead. They collapsed to the floor, semi-conscious. McCloud knelt and picked up his pistol, set it to stun, and shot both lizards. He holstered the staff then his pistol and chuckled. "I like how you envisioned that entire plan so I could see your intentions."

Asper stood up and glanced over his shoulder at the guard whose body lay sprawled out several hundred feet away. "I had no idea you'd hit him so hard… how the heck did you do that?"

The pilot shrugged and said, "It's draining. Like mom always said, it takes a developed frontal lobe to pull it off." He reached a paw beneath Asper's right arm, helping the Marine to his feet. "I see you get calm during the heat of battle – it really helped your nerves. Let's get the hell out of here – I want to see my son again before we drop everyone off on Katina."

They hurried to the flight deck, where Asper reluctantly crawled into the cargo hold beneath the ship. Marcus fired a fully charged proton shot into the force field leading out of the dome. It wavered, flickering between blue and red. As soon as it turned blue for the third time, he punched the throttle, passing through it. His ship jolted slightly, passing from one medium into another. His speed lowered by a fraction, from the resistance of the water against his hull. He pulled back on the stick and headed for the surface of Aquas.

His eyes narrowed, seeing a squadron of Venom gunships, waiting to escort the Imperial troop-transport withdraw. He pressed a button on his dash, connected to a speaker in his hold. The button was labeled, 'Tricky Mic'. "Hold tight – it's going to get a little bumpy…"

* * *

**Meanwhile, Violet stood on the flight deck** of the GreatFox Flying Fortress. She wrapped her arms around her father and hugged him then stepped back. Her mother moved forward to step into Falco's embrace. Violet turned back to the carriage and lifted little James. She carried the baby to the edge of the flight deck and moved him into her right arm, pointing with her left paw. "See that, Jaye? It's an almost endless ocean."

The child cooed but remained asleep. She paused to study the water then sighed. "C'mon, Marcus and Asper… you've been gone an awfully long time, boys." She sat down on the edge of the flight deck and put her feet over the side… her talons just barely grazed the surface of the water. Small whitecaps licked at her heels, splashing against the hull plating. The light spray moistened the lavender fur around her ankles. "Don't worry, they'll be here soon," she said as if telling the baby.

A paw touched her shoulder. "They'll be fine." The voice belonged to Fara Phoenix. "Mrs. McCloud would sense if her son was in danger."

Violet shook her head. "On the ride up, she told us that the distance between the surface and the ocean floor was beyond her normal range. She would require meditation to sense his immediate presence."

Fara sat down besides the woman and furrowed her brows. "Really? But Marcus, a few weeks ago, was able to sense Kursed from half-way across Lylat."

Violet nodded. "Yeah, if I recall correctly, he saw her in his dreams… a lucid dream is almost the same as meditation."

Phoenix frowned. "I suppose you're right about that. So this other guy, the one down there with Marcus… they said he's a Marine from Katina?"

"News travels fast on this ship," replied Violet with a nod. "The two of them should be okay, so long as they're not outnumbered. It's just… taken longer than I expected… now that Venom is withdrawing, they should have been _right_ behind us. Mrs. McCloud contacted them when we were nearly to the surface… I try to be optimistic but sometimes I can't help but worry." She glanced over at the vixen, who remained silent then looked back out to the endless water. The bottom of SOL met with the horizon, casting the sky into a beautiful orange.

Violet licked her lips then, in a soft voice, said, "Sorry I acted like a fool a few weeks ago. I appreciate your concern. Aren't you worried about them?"

"I try to bottle it… I can't _always_ wear my heart on my sleeve – just when the time and place is appropriate to do so." Fara reached for Violet's free paw and closed her fingers overtop. "Sometimes, you've just got to have a little faith, I suppose."

Violet lowered her gaze, glancing at a random section of water, off to the left. "Your man is out there, in danger… but you're bottling your worry?" She drew in a slow breath then cut her eyes to the sandy-furred paw over her own. "I wish I wasn't as emotional as I am… I respect your ability to be so optimistic. Out of curiosity, doesn't it bother you that you're just a few feet away from his son?"

Fara shook her head. "Mathematically speaking, James predates our new-found relationship. Yeah, I started falling for him before I knew of that… _parameter_, but I also accept it."

Violet tightened her jaw, pulled her paw out from beneath Fara's then turned to face her. She remained quiet for a moment, mulling over all the things she could say about the situation but, finally, she decided on a different approach. She lifted the swaddled child in offering. "Hold him. Touch him; this is the flesh and blood of your boyfriend… If you're going to accept Marcus, you've no choice but to accept James."

The fennec nodded in reverence and drew the sleeping baby into her paws. She cradled the child, with Violet's guidance, to support the baby's head. Fara was speechless, so Violet spoke instead. "It's a lot different than holding a gun. It's a lot different than holding an Imperial lizard by the neck, or holding your boyfriend at night. It's a lot different than holding a flight stick, a detonator, or one of your family's new business contracts. I wasn't ready for this to happen – no one ever is until they've done it before."

Fara said nothing. She brought her nose to the short feathery locks between his ears and sniffed. The scent was somewhat similar to Marcus McCloud.

"It may not change how you feel about Marcus, Fara, but you can't deny that holding his son changes _something_ in your heart. I'm not doing this to try and drive a wedge between you two… I just wanted you to realize the depth of what you and he are about to get into, together. Take your time, don't rush or whatever… that's what I did… now I'm a single mother. It changes things for me… Taking attention away from the baby for a full-time career and an education is impossible… I can either do one or the other – doing both wouldn't be fair to James."

"He's beautiful," said Fara in a soft voice. She lifted her head and gazed upon the innocent child, letting Violet's words sink in to some degree. "A little part of every girl wishes for the perfect children – you're lucky to have him. Yes, you're right… this does make things a little more complex with Marcus, but so long as I'm able to differentiate between 'Fara the lover', 'Fara the fighter', 'Fara the mother' and 'Fara the career-woman', I should be able to do my best for every side of me. Every woman has multiple sides… You're 'Violet the daughter' one moment, 'Violet the mother' the next… Then this war comes along, and you're 'Violet the survivor.' I'm still struggling with being, 'Fara the immortal.' All we can do is try our best to be happy with the hand that life deals."

"Sounds like you've rehearsed that little speech," replied Violet. She lowered her head then sighed. "Right now, I'm being 'Violet the emotional worrier.' They've been gone for far too long." A loud splash caused both girls to look up. A Venom ship broke the surface a few hundred yards from the GreatFox.

They both got to their feet and stepped away from the edge of the deck. Both watched, waiting to see what the ship would do. To their dismay, it pulled a hard loop and came about, targeting the floating dreadnaught. Fara transferred little James to her other arm then reached her free paw out and struck the wall-mounted control box. The flight deck's force field hummed to life just in time for two blaster shots to glance off the energy shield.

Violet's sharp eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "I see missiles rolling out from the bay beneath his nosecone! The hull isn't polarized! We're sitting ducks!"

A large blast of plasmatic energy shot up from the ocean surface like a geyser. It rushed upwards in a straight line and struck the Venom fighter's left wing. Seconds later, an Arwing emerged in a high speed vertical climb, guns blazing. The twin wing blasters roared to life, followed by another plasma cannon discharge. The Venom fighter exploded in a fantastic eruption. Its artillery exploded like fireworks at a parade.

Violet shielded her face, watching the explosion through her fingertips. Meanwhile, Fara tucked the baby against her chest instinctively, while narrowing her eyes from the ribbon of fire. It fizzled out in the sky, followed by the fiery hull plunging into the brine, a thousand feet out. A dark cloud of steam and smoke rose above the impact point – the remaining right wing jutted high above the surface for a moment then sank slowly into the depths.

A voice came over the control box in the wall. "This is Marcus McCloud – I need clearance to land."

Fara approached the panel and pressed a blue button. "This is GreatFox, the flight deck is clear – see you there, flyboy." Phoenix disengaged the energy shield and nodded for the observation deck, ten feet away. She and Violet moved from the entrance then turned about, waiting for his craft to land.

The Arwing touched down on the flight deck – hot steam gushed from a port near the engine. Water trickled down the grooves in the hull plating, dripping from the bottom. The cockpit canopy lifted in unison to the cargo hold ramp, which lowered to the flight deck.

Violet hurried towards the fighter then knelt below it to help Asper from beneath. Fara, on the other hand, sauntered towards Marcus. He eased his legs over the side then dropped to the deck, landing in a crouched position. He stood up, coming face to face with the sandy-furred fennec. She leaned forward, placed her free paw against his chest then kissed him.

Marcus placed his padded palms against either side of her face and melted into the kiss, deepening it. He felt her tongue brush against his and murred into the joining. The delicious liplock lasted another moment or two before Fara broke the kiss and pushed her nose against his neck. She inhaled deeply then lifted her head and smiled. "Someone wants to see you…" She lifted the swaddled infant, tucked in her right arm, offering the baby to him.

He lowered his paws, gently taking the baby from her. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he sensed the rest of the team, including his parents, stepping onto the flight deck. He lowered his gaze, looking over the baby with a fond little smile, but he couldn't stop the tears that welled up in his eyes. He finally had a moment of peace to enjoy with his son.

McCloud lowered his face, brushing his nose against the little charcoal button at the tip of his son's muzzle. In that instant, James opened his tiny eyes, peering up at his father's mismatched eyes. Deep, dazzling golden orbs met and locked with the blue and green hues – no one said anything. Marcus swallowed back the swirl of emotions in his chest, feeling a probing essence inside of his mind… it wasn't the voice of his mother.

He drew in a deep breath, offered a brilliant and loving smile and thought, '_Hello, James_.'

THE END

* * *

A/N:_ See, I toljda I'd finish it before the world ended! _

_THERE WILL BE AN EPILOGUE, but because this chapter is over TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND WORDS in length, I wanted to make the Epilogue separate._

_Still wanna read a sequel, gang? SAY SO!_

_Also, my laptop died while writing this chapter, so I had to pat myself on the back for emailing each day's update to myself, and using an SD card to save on… gut feeling, you know? I finished it on my desktop. This is what happened during Reflections of FOx McCloud. Suddenly, my laptop died, last may, and I was like... CRAP THE WHOLE CHAPTER! AHHH!_

_Man, I didn't KNOW how I wanted to end it until I got to the last page… then it just hit me! I hope you guys liked the way I ended it!_

_I'm going to hammer out this epilogue real fast andpost it… THEN, I owe a few people a review on their story! Digital Dimension, I swear I'll get to it… JyrFalcon, I'm sorry, I owe you now that I'm about to post the Epilogue for this story! I promise! _

_I amused myself with the prospect of having Fara become Asper's Covert Ops instructor… Fox and Krystal really want to retire, even though Fox still wants to finish Andrew and Dash. I also amused myself by having Fox use Panther's line from the beginning of Chapter 27, BACK on Panther. That was a line in StarFox Command, where Panther says, "Krystal, tell this loser where to stuff his Arwing and let's go!" I thought it would be funny for Fox to use it back on him in this chapter, to which Panther replies with, "touche." xD_

_And what of that guy who visited Marcus in the hospital? And what about the last Cerinia grain / jewel given to Marcus by Krystal's FATHER in that dream state? He has it! What is it for? How does it come into play in his life? _

_AND … what about Lucy Hare? She's not yet woken up! And what about Theodore Toad! What happened to Bliss? And let's not forget, what about Kursed? Is she really making a bionic comeback? What will SHE think of Krystal and Fox's relationship, huh? And what of Dash's Teraforming scheme, his bio-weapon...? Of Dash and Andrew, who is going to stab WHO in the back FIRST? _

_There's a whole lot left to tell… but I need to know… do you guys want to read about it, or is a sequel unnecessary? _

_Let me know!_

_Okay, I'll get this Epilogue up ASAP! It'll be a short introduction into what will happen in the near future… all the major ACTION ended with today's chapter. Any thoughts? Anything people want to see if I write a next story? _

_Okay, it is time for me to go and write that Epilogue… See you then!_

-Kit


	31. EPILOGUE

A/N: _If you find anything wrong - spelling or whatnot, PM me and I'll fix it. I'm so busy with people over at my house today, I've not gotten the time to red pen-whip the printed version. I'll remove this short note later, when I spruce it up - if I can't find anything wrong with it, I'll still come back later and remove this short note. Because all of my reviews for chapter 30 have asked for a sequel, I'm using this prologue to get things ready for the first chapter of the sequel. YES, I'll get to SPY COOPER, but right now I'm on a StarFox kick. Expect me to start on this sequel and kick out a chapter or two pretty soon. I've also got to do more work on Reflections of Fox McCloud!_

_THANK YOU GUYS FOR READING! I appreciate you taking your time on my story - your reviews and feedback have been both flattering and humbling. YAY! My first story to break THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND WORDS in length! And, at 31 actual chapters, it's also the longest there, too. It's got the most alerts, the most feedback reviews, the longest chapter (30) I've written so far... and it's about to break the most hits (Right now, Reflections of the Future has 25 thousand, but this story is almost at 18 thousand now and I know a lot of people only start on fully completed stories... so it should pick up more hits (plus the people who wish to re-read all the way through it from the beginning) so... I have a feeling it may break 25k at SOME point.) THANK YOU!_

_-Ken_

* * *

EPILOGUE

_Two very quiet months later…_

**Marcus McCloud**. His name was written out in elegant calligraphy across the top of the parchment. He lifted his eyes from the fancy scroll and gazed upon the front doors of the newly converted Cornerian Flight Academy. The building acted as a trade school before the capital city was bombed a few months ago. Now, recently purchased by the Cornerian Government, the renovated school lay out was designed to handle the massive influx of young pilots. With political tension in the air concerning Venom, thousands of teenagers were signing up for various military branches.

McCloud turned his head towards Crimson and grinned. "You're going to be the oldest Freshman in your class, Red. You know what _that_ means."

"I sure do," replied O'Donnell with an equally devious grin. "I'm going to be up to my shoulders in _tail_. I heard there were so many recruits signing up that they had to combine some dorms into co-ed groupings. I hope I'm lucky enough to get a chick as my roommate."

"Why?"

Crimson shrugged. "Women are usually neater than guys and you know how I am… I'm OCD about organizing my stuff… It would be nice if it was a really hot chick."

"Heck, I'm probably going to be the oldest Senior, too." Marcus shrugged. "That's irony… I was the youngest Freshman when I signed up. I started on my thirteenth birthday – they only made the exception because I aced my aptitude test and mental congruency test."

"Congruency, huh?" Red stuffed his paws into his pockets. "In other words, you had to take a test to make sure you'd be mentally compatible with everyone else?"

"Yup. Oh, and in case you were wondering, Fara turned down that offer to be a flight instructor here. Instead, she accepted the temporary position of covert ops trainer for Bill."

"Why is it temporary?" Crimson started down the marble steps, heading towards the main building up ahead. Marcus followed.

"Because, Red… first of all, she's flying for StarFox when we reemerge from the academy. Second of all, she's not military property anymore. This means they're hiring her on a short-term civilian contract until people are trained… then one of the graduates will take over. I'm not going to see her very much until I've graduated." McCloud arrived at the door first and opened it for his friend. The two walked into the large lobby where contractors were hanging the original CFA sign from cables. Part of the sign was faded and the edges looked as though it withstood intense heat.

Marcus shuttered, remembering when the bomb exploded in the capital city. "That thing was nearly at ground zero, Red. I'm amazed they even salvaged the signs, plaques and banners from the old academy grounds."

"That's not all… look," said O'Donnell, pointing at another scaffolding across the room. "Holy crap, man. That's got to be weird for you, huh?" Crimson half-smirked at his friend then face-faulted in realization and said, "Man, you didn't read the school's newsletter from yesterday. "

"No, it should have been enough that I attended the open-house ceremony. I didn't care what was on the dumb letter." McCloud's eyes fell upon the large M-Class fighter being re-erected at the other end of the massive lobby. He glanced back at Red with his right eyebrow cocked then began a quick walk towards the fighter. He glanced back at Red again, from across the lobby then stopped in front of the scaffold frame. His jaw dropped. After a moment, Red's paw found his shoulder. Marcus tilted his head in confusion. "I was there for three years – I never saw _this_ at the old academy building back in the capital city."

"I read that the thing was purchased by a private collector. It was returned to the school two years ago…" Crimson shook his head then added, "They _said_, in the newsletter, they're going to be putting it up today and asked for donations to keep it in good condition. Dude, if you don't like it, tell them to take it down or something."

Marcus shook his head slowly. "No, it's not my place. My father made all those records in that thing – it's only fair they have it up. I just don't want to feel like I'm flying against him while I'm here. I mean, couldn't they have just hung up a jersey or his uniform? Why does it have to be the ship he trained in?"

Crimson shrugged then patted his friend's shoulder. "I saw the name on the brass plate from all the way across the lobby, man."

"You've got pilot's eyes," replied Marcus. "Better than mine. And here they say good eyes ran in the _McCloud_ family."

"Yeah, and only _one eye_ ran in mine…" O'Donnell smirked and folded his arms. "Maybe we're somehow related – stop beating yourself up. Anyhow, I'm going to go and see who my new roommate is. And, so you know, you're not the only one flying against records and ghosts, here. My sister earned the highest academic standing in her first year, and came in second for longest in the gravity machine… right beneath your old man. No one has come close to either him _or_ her. I'll call you later tonight – we'll go party or something. That's what you're supposed to do when you're in school, right?"

"…Yeah, sure." Marcus lifted his right paw and closed it into a fist. He waited for Crimson, who pounded his knuckles against McCloud's. The young vulpine dropped his paw to his side and stood there for a moment. His eyes remained on the fighter for several minutes.

Meanwhile, Crimson headed down the hallway towards the dorms. He stopped in front of an elevator and pressed the button then took it up to the third floor. The hybrid wolf drew out his itinerary and double checked the room number. "Three November." He walked all the way down to the fourteenth door – labeled '3N' – then pulled the cardkey from the backside of his sheet. He rubbed the adhesive off the back of the card then slid it into the slot and opened the door.

He stepped into the room and noted a pink duffle bag on the floor in the hallway. Red shut the door and peered into the first bedroom. It was threadbare save for a very plain bunk against the far wall. He continued down the hallway a bit further, passed a bathroom and peered into the second bedroom. In the reflection of a wall mirror, sitting on its side against the far end, he saw the backside of an incredibly attractive rabbit. The shapely rear, sporting a delicately fluffed cotton tail, jutted from a closet. He could barely make out the details in the mirror. From what he could tell, she was kneeling down and arranging her shoes in an obsessively perfect way. She lined them beneath the flawlessly organized clothes, which hung from their hooks in color coordinated fashion. An array of accessories hung from pegs on the closet door, displayed by color, size and luster.

He thrust his fist into the air then jerked it down. Not only did she have an amazing figure, she appeared to be a neat-freak like himself. He licked his paw and ran his fingers back through his thick garnet hair. After a moment to tidy his collar he rapped his knuckles against the doorframe and cleared his throat.

"Oh, you must be the new roommate," said the woman, half muffled from where she stood in the rather deep closet. "Some other guy just left here a minute ago – he worked for the academy. He made me sign a waiver declaring they had my permission to pair me with a male roommate." She paused then stood up, putting a box on a shelf above the hanging clothes. "Don't mind me… I'm just particular about where I place everything." She stepped back from the closet and faced the wall, fluffing her bangs with a quick brush of her fingers.

Crimson stepped in the room, taking one last fleeting glance at her shapely backside then lifted his eyes to shoulder-height. He didn't want to be caught staring… She turned about to face him and his eyes locked with hers. Then, the same way Marcus's jaw dropped down in the lobby, O'Donnell's muzzle nearly hit the floor. He blinked twice then simply blurted the word, "Sugar!"

The rabbit smiled brightly, recognizing him from the seedy little strip bar on the station above Venom. "You were friends with that pilot boy – my, my… what a small galaxy. I heard you guys never caught Andrew Oikonny but you sure gave that guy a run for his money. How've you been?"

Crimson broke into soft laughter, face-palming from the irony. "Great…I've been great. We whipped that guy's tail and put his main force into the Aquas Ocean… so you're flying? What happened to dancing?"

Sugar approached him. Her busty complexion drew his attention with every bouncy step. "Venom's military closed that outpost and turned it into a military fueling station. They shot the place up and I vowed to join the Air Guard and show them a piece of my mind. And what brings a made-mercenary to the academy, mister…?"

He quickly lifted his gaze again and offered a paw to her. The two shook and he said, "Crimson O'Donnell… but you can call me Red. McCloud – you knew him as _Star_ but he changed it to Marcus – has one year left." He paused then chuckled a bit in realization that he didn't answer her question. "I never had the opportunity to do this stuff in the first place because I was living on the streets for a few years. Damn you're freakin' hotter than the last time we saw you." His eyes grew wide as saucers and he lifted his paws into the air defensively. "I mean, I… That didn't come out right, I didn't mean to…"

"Thanks!" She reached her left paw up and patted the side of his face. "I'm glad I got an attractive, honest roommate!" She paused then the corner of her muzzle tugged into a sly grin. "And yes, if you must know…" She winked, her grin broadening further. "They're real." Then, for effect, she waggled her brows at him, walked out into the hall and retrieved her pink duffle.

Crimson, speechless, pushed his entire right fist into his muzzle and bit down on his knuckles. He crossed his eyes, feeling as though he may have made a fool of himself, regardless of her smile and boisterous reply. The incredulous half-lupine tensed up, so as not to make a bigger ass of himself from excitement. He breathed through his nose to relax his swirling head … as well as everything _south _of his shoulders.

* * *

**The rabbit groaned** as her head swirled with confusion. After a moment, the short-lived vertigo faded and she opened her eyes, looking up at ROB. Lucy Hare sat up in the bed and swiveled her head from left to right. "Holy cow, where is everyone?" She lifted her left paw and glanced at her watch then furrowed her brow. "No, this date _can't_ be right." Her husky voice caused her to scrunch her nose. The tonal quality of her voice sounded awful from lack of use.

ROB's face illuminated and, quite suddenly, he reanimated from his sleep mode. "Lucy! You're awake!" Much to her surprise, he wrapped his metallic arms around her and hugged her to his robotic torso.

"Goodness ROB! Well hello to you, too!" Lucy's voice crackled from lack of use. She coughed then asked, "Was I really out for two months or is my watch wrong?" She cleared her throat then licked at her dry lips. "Can you be a dear and get me some water?" For a moment, ROB remained unresponsive. She wiggled against his chest and asked, "ROB, please… the water?"

The robotic droid released her and leaned back, offering a dry, almost nervous sounding digitized chuckle. "Oh, right… water – sure thing!" He moved to a sink and filled a plastic cup while reaching his other arm to a panel on the wall and pressed a button. "Vivian, your mother has recovered." He released the panel and turned back to Lucy with the cup and approached her bed.

In the background, Vivian's voice replied over the box. "I'll be there as soon as I can!"

Lucy took the cup and drank from it until the water was gone. She sighed then asked, "Do we have footage of what happened upon our return?"

"Yes, of course." ROB pulled a small box off of his chest and held it extended in his hand. A small screen illuminated, starting at where the whole team was sprawled out on the floor.

Lucy wrinkled her nose distastefully and asked, "Why are we all lying like that with our arms and legs fully extended?"

ROB simply said, "Tonic labyrinthine reflexes from the gravitational stress on the otholitic organs. The gravitational force brought about the hyperactive contraction of limb extensor…" He stopped at a gesture made by Lucy.

"I teach _astrophysics_, not biology or medical science. Okay, so the gravity did that to our bodies by making our brains act a certain way. I gather that much from what you said… can you forward to the part where someone comes along and finds us?"

The monitor fluttered for a moment then returned to normal speed, showing a group of young kids and Falco stepping onto the bridge. Vivian ran over to Lucy's body on the screen then collapsed protectively over the elder rabbit. Lucy watched her motionless body on the screen, her head lolling back in her daughter's arms.

"Oh the poor dear, why is she crying so?" To Lucy's question, ROB offered a sigh. She tilted her head at him and asked, "What?"

"Vivian dreads telling you that Peppy passed away in his sleep a few years ago. She's afraid of your reaction."

Lucy closed her eyes and lowered her head in reverence. "Oh, Poppa." She felt a metal hand touch her shoulder and leaned into it. She placed her other paw atop of his cool steel hand and sighed.

"I'm sorry to be the one to break that news to you – it wasn't my place to…"

"…ROB, stop. I appreciate it – death is just a bit touchy of a subject for me," she explained. "After Vivian's daddy passed, I moved back in with Poppa because I hated the feeling of being alone. That's all we women ever really need… companionship. At least _I_ do."

ROB placed his other arm around her waist and, without thinking further into the matter, she hugged him and wept softly in mourning. Several moments passed before she sat back up in the bed and wiped her eyes. "Thanks, I appreciate your understanding. Death is something people have to face; I'm almost envious that you don't have to ponder your mortality."

"My first owner died," said ROB. For a time, I thought his son was dead. Then, one day, Peppy showed up while GreatFox was sitting on Sauria. He sat down and tinkered with some of my programs and we spoke. Years ago, he programmed me to be especially protective of you, after his wife, Mrs. Vivian Hare, died from illness. When he came here, he took Fox's headset and some small trinkets and told me to stay with the ship until he could get the chance to send Star McCloud – who changed his name earlier this year – to pick up the pieces of the wreckage. When I finally saw Star, I learned Peppy passed. Perhaps it was Peppy's protective program, but I experienced hardware malfunction shortly after Peppy told me that you might have been killed by the gravity bomb. After he left, I shut down from neural stimulus overload. It took Star plugging me into a charger to hot-boot my main systems – a self diagnostic repaired the system crash."

Lucy rubbed her eyes and blinked at him. "Are you saying you fainted when you heard that the StarFox team was assumed KIA status?"

ROB looked away. "Ahem… I've experienced something similar to what you might call 'heartbreak' at the news of said 'death', but only yours. So, please, there is no need to be envious of me for _anything_."

Hare gently put her arms around him again and said, "That's very sweet of you. I appreciate it, ROB. I'm not sure how it's possible but thank you. You've _always_ looked out for me, haven't you? Like the time on Corneria when fighting against the Anglars… it was just you and me – I got the missiles and you took care of the enemy. You've always been sweet to me."

ROB froze for a moment then eased one metallic arm around her and gently patted her back. "I, uh… Rrrr… I'd do anything for you, Lucy. I …I mean, …It's just that…"

"Like I said, you're sweet to me."

The door at the other end of the sickbay opened and young Vivian, named so after her deceased grandmother, stepped through the door. "Mom!" She hurried across the floor. ROB released Lucy, who turned and opened her arms to her daughter. The two hugged in silence.

After a moment, Lucy said, "ROB knew you were worried about how I would take the news about Poppa… he made it easier on you by telling me… How was his funeral?"

"There was _two_ funerals. A memorial wake for the public and the actual burial service for the family and close friends. Marcus and Bill were there…" She paused then licked her lips and corrected herself. "Marcus is Star McCloud's new name. Bill, of course, being Bill Grey. He's the temporary General of the fleet right now, but it's looking as though it might be permanent because Corneria's made such positive strides in the recovery since the attack that the public and the Prime Minister have become very fond of him and…" Vivian stopped speaking. Her eyes met those of her mother and she smiled. "I'm rambling – I'm just excited that you're awake… you've been out for _nine weeks_. Everyone was worried. You were the only one who didn't wake up and… doctors were saying it might be forever."

"Was I on a respirator?"

Vivian shook her head and said, "You had full brain functionality. It was as if you were just sleeping. They even monitored your brain – they could tell you were dreaming. But you were completely unresponsive to touch and light. Your eyes didn't dilate, which really confused doctors."

"Weird." She rocked her daughter back and forth then said, "My, you've grown up so much and…" Lucy blinked and eased back, cocking her head. "Is something moving in your pocket?"

Vivian reached a paw into her overalls, pulled out a tiny little ball of fluff and said, "I found him on Fichina. I call him nibbles because, as small as he is, he's nothing but fuzz and teeth." She held the little creature up in her palm for her mother to inspect it. "Isn't he adorable?"

Lucy offered her daughter a giggle and said, "He's so cute." She leaned forward and whispered into Vivian's ear. "How long has ROB hovered over me while I was out?"

Vivian glanced over her mother's shoulder then in a hushed tone, replied into her mother's long ear-stalk. "The _entire_ nine weeks. Marcus hasn't been able to get him to pilot GreatFox, he refused to leave your side. He even constructed some additions to a charging station here in the sickbay so he didn't have to leave your bedside to plug in. It was kinda' weird."

Lucy leaned back and patted ROB's half-hollow chest. "He was being sweet. Not many men'll do that for ya'. I'm going to go and take a shower… I really need one." She ran her paws along her sides and beneath her legs then smiled. "Whoever rolled me over while I was out… I want to thank you. I'm glad I didn't wake up with bedsores." She stepped out of bed and winced. "Boy… muscles are tight." She reached a paw out to Vivian. "Maybe a bath instead of a shower… need to soak these old bones."

Vivian smirked at her mother. "Old bones, huh? If I look _half_ as good as you in just ten years, I'll be a happy woman and my future husband will be a happy man." She put her arm around her mother's waist and pulled Lucy's right arm around her shoulder, guiding her back to the quarters. She looked back at ROB and smiled. "Thanks… I'll take it from here… Don't worry, you can hover around her again later… Just don't wear out your welcome to her. I know you get a little obsessive over her."

ROB folded his metal fingers together and lowered his chin just a bit. "…Sorry."

Lucy grinned impishly and said, "ROB, come by in two hours and visit me in my quarters. I'll need to stretch my body and do a light work out to get my tone and body strength back. You can help me do that… and maybe I'll think of a proper way to thank you for being my guardian angel the entire time." The two women left sickbay.

ROB waited until they were gone then collapsed back against his charging station, looked up at the ceiling and said, "Why do I always act this way around her? Rrrar, she invited me to her room, though! …What is wrong with me? I'd better run a self diagnostic first, just in case."

* * *

**Feminine laughter filled the air**. Carey Granton placed her paw affectionately on Bliss' face then leaned back in her chair, looking up through the bubble glass. "I wish I could see the look on Bowman's face when he finds out."

Bliss turned to her girlfriend and smirked. "He deserves it. I decided that when he drugged me and threw me in that cell a few weeks ago. Oh, I've been waiting to get my revenge on him, believe me. And that's not all… I found out who his Anglar buddy's contact was."

Carey tilted her head. The svelte vixen shoved her short recently-dyed chestnut hair into waves then glanced in the reflection of a nearby screen. "Zizan."

Bliss gawked. "You knew?"

"Sure did, honey. Dash is in league with that loser, too. Wasn't he the same guy who worked for the Anglar Emperor? I mean, that guy was supposed to be dead. Yeah, I found out when Dash asked me to look at his precious shipment; he got a call from the guy on his personal communicator when I was within earshot. That ore is the real deal, though."

Bliss grumbled to herself then pulled something out of her jacket and tossed the object on the dashboard. "I can't believe you stole my thunder… yeah, he's working with Zizan, too. But that trifling hoe, Kursed, is the real deal, too. Maybe we should have stayed in league with him to keep an eye on him."

"We can always turn around and tell him we really went on a patrol – left the base together so we could get freaky in a transporter ship. I doubt he'd be any wiser."

"Oh, no, he'd believe us," replied Bliss. "He's an _idiot_. But, do you really want to work with him now that he's getting buddy-buddy with Andrew Oikonny?" She stared at the object on the dashboard then, all at once, she grinned. "Besides, he's not going anywhere anytime soon."

Carey sat up and looked at the object on the dashboard. "Is that some sort of engine part?"

"It's… a present for daddy." Bliss smiled sweetly. "You know that asteroid they have in orbit above Macbeth?"

"No… wait," Granton leaned back in her seat again then rubbed the bottom of her chin. "You mean that mostly hollow one? I thought they were trying to mine it for more ore, before they got hold of your father's supply?"

"No," said Bliss with a frown. "They were trying to turn that thing into a corebase with a natural granite and iron wall to act as a shielding barrier. No one even knows it exists save for us and that idiot Zizan who is heading up the operation. But Zizan is doing something else for Dash, too… I'm not sure what it is, but it's going to be big. Either way, that part belongs to Bowman's plasma engines. It's something akin to a fuse and is in very limited supply because of Venom's economic state… they can't even mine it there… it comes from natural deposits on Titania. And those engines don't run without that thing."

Carey squealed. "You conniving … circuitous deviant!" She slid out of the chair and snatched the part off of the dashboard then looked it over. "Think you can have this shaved down and set into a ring?" She held it to the light then looked it over again with a grin. "I like how this thing looks… it'd make a great ring." She tossed the jewel-like crystalline fuse into the air then caught it in her palm. "Shiny. I suppose it's unprofessional for a woman with a PhD in theoretical physics to say 'shiny', but when you're dating the most Machiavellian, two-timing, underhanded master of subterfuge in all of Lylat…"

O'Donnell chortled. "Flattery will get you everywhere… and no, I told you… it's a gift for daddy. He'll most likely sell it back to Dash for a ridiculous amount of money."

Carey sat down on her cushioned chair on her hip and put her elbow against the backrest, leaning up. "And what makes you think Dash will pay so much?"

Bliss snorted in muffled laughter. "Because his ship is stranded in the middle of Lylat with no way to get anywhere… my father will come along and sell it to him, on the spot… and he'll need it. Call it a convenience fee." She rubbed her chin then stretched, ending on a yawn. "It's been eight weeks as of today. Their original plan was to lay low and wait for the team on Macbeth to finish boring out that asteroid. Today was the day they're supposed to come out of hiding and go see the progress. Any time now, they'll find out their engines won't fire up… They're in for quite a surprise. So, no, I don't think we should go back. I mean, it has been two months."

Carey turned her head back to her girlfriend and chuckled. "So _that's_ why you pulled this thing out today… Because today is the day they're going to finally need it?"

"Like daddy said, it's all about business. Daddy will stop by and sell him what he needs for an outrageous price." Bliss trailed off and glanced at a blinking light on a nearby terminal. "Oh, speak of the devil."

"Your father?"

Dash shook his head. "No, look." She pressed a button on a panel and Dash Bowman's exasperated face filled the view screen. "It's been two months. What do _you_ want? Isn't it obvious – I terminated our business contract because I don't share your sentiment for scientific necromancy on dead bitches, I don't care to make nuclear bombs," she said, pronouncing the word as, 'new clear.' "Furthermore, your Anglar associates annoyed me… those things _smell_, man."

Bowman gritted his teeth. "First of all, ask your little girlfriend… it's pronounced 'nuclear'," he said, wording it as, 'new cue ler'. He took a deep breath so as not to shout and then said, "My ship is beginning to fall into a degraded orbit. You wouldn't happen to know anything about why my main fuse is missing, would you?"

Bliss gawked, thrusting her fists against her hips. "Are you calling me a _thief_? If it's a stupid plasma engine part, why don't you _buy_ one from my _father_, you idiot?"

"We ripped him off – why would I call him?" Dash quirked a brow having fallen for her ruse. "I'm not interested in telling him that my ship is a sitting duck, so he can come and exact revenge."

Bliss rolled her eyes and said, "He's a business man. And just because you can't run away doesn't mean you're defenseless. He'll charge a convenience fee for bringing the part _to_ you, but he won't shoot at you… especially when this could be quite lucrative to him."

"The part we need is far too difficult to acquire. This is not your average style plasma drive. The fuse we need is _only_ found on Titania and it has to be mined, cleaned then cut a certain way."

O'Donnell took on a dull stare, glaring at the screen. "He also possessed a rare _ore_ up until two months ago. He happens to have plenty of rare things lying around. Why? Because they're worth _money_, you simpleton. Do you want me to call him _for_ you?"

Dash glared at her in return for a moment then said, "At first, I was sure you sabotaged our engine core… but now that I think about it, you don't know a damn thing about engines, do you? Your girlfriend is the smart one… you're just the sassy big-breasted bimbo who gets by in life with her looks and a gun under her pillow."

Bliss's eyes dropped to the engine part on the dashboard, just out of Bowman's direct line of sight. She shrugged then nodded matter-of-factly. "Damn, you've got me figured out. I made a pretty good body guard for you, though. And yes, Carey does all the brainy stuff _for_ me. But I'm not insulted by your…" She paused for a moment then tilted her head and said, "…trite banter. Your diatribe doesn't affect me, nor does the rest of your meandering prattle. My ship flies – yours is vulnerable, oh venerable Dash Bowman. However, a lucrative commission is in order – I'll have my father bring you a part for the right amount." Bliss slid out of her chair and bowed before the camera. "I live to assuage thy Lordship. That I might placate thee is to circumvent admonishment and eschew thy great wrath!" She melodramatically bowed before the screen.

"Just get me the god-forsaken part, Bliss. Name your price – I don't care what it takes, so long as you hurry." He closed the channel.

Bliss turned to Carey and snorted. "I should march right onto his bridge, drag him to the nearest observation deck and defenestrate his funky no-tailed ass." She crossed her ankles then curtsied. "How was my performance?"

Carey applauded with a giggle. "Riveting! Let's go stop by Sargasso and sell this thing to your father, with the promise that he can make a three _hundred_ percent markup."

Bliss grinned brightly. "Yes, _sell_ it to my father… with a bonus gift of giving him an immediate buyer… now you're getting the whole idea of this _business_ thing. Nice touch, sweetie."

Carey grinned. "I hang around you… and by the way, Bliss, I've never seen you bring out such a large string of vocabulary words… I just wanted to tell you that hearing you talk like that _really_ turned me on."

Bliss reached for a button, drawing the shades down over the plexi-bubble to their transporter. The interior illumination dimmed and she grinned deviously. "Rower…"

* * *

**"This court finds you **_**not guilty**_**."** The judge wrapped the gavel against a wood base. Theodore stood up, turned to his lawyer and shook the man's paw, and then turned to his parents and hugged them. The judge stood up and continued his speech. "Due to the fact that you attempted to help a mercenary group fight against the bio weapon, and due to the evidence suggesting you were not in league with Venom… as well as the evidence that you had no idea about Dash Bowman's true intentions, this court cannot condemn you on circumstantial evidence. Let the records show that Theodore Toad did not help or in any-way aid in Dash Bowman's construction of the bomb used on Corneria's capital city. Mister Toad, your name is cleared – you've been cleared by a Cornerian Jury of your peers. Congratulations."

Theodore turned back to the judge and said, "Thank you, your honor!" He turned his head, looking back to the far end of the courtroom. "Mom, dad, there are going to be a lot of reporters out there. I wish the team could have come, though."

Slippy patted his son's shoulder and said, "Vivian raced back to GreatFox… she said Lucy woke up. Marcus and Crimson started classes today… Fara and Falco are setting up something for General Grey. Are you still going to fly for StarFox after Marcus graduates?"

Theodore chuckled. "Are you kidding? Meeting up with the pilots of StarFox is the _only_ thing Dash actually did _right_. Okay, I've never been at the center of attention like this before. Hell, I reckon I'm ready to go and be a complete ham." He leaned towards his mother and kissed the side of her face. "Thanks for the support, you guys."

Amanda handed him his favorite wide-brimmed hat. "You did a fantastic job, sweetheart. Now, go out there and tell all those journalists that you and the rest of StarFox are going to clean up the metaphorical town. And while you're at it, make a personal message to Dash… tell'em you're coming for him soon. Remember to smile, look confident and…" She paused, licked her palm then rubbed the side of his cheek.

"…Mom!" He waved his hand at her and said, "Will you stop mothering me for a minute!" He took his favorite hat then grinned at her. "Geeze." He put it on his head and asked, "How do I look?"

Slippy grinned and fixed his son's collar. "You always were way more socially confident than me. I'm proud of you. Go get'em, bud."

* * *

**Marcus closed the door to his dorm** and tossed his backpack on the floor. He made his way to the bed at the other side of the open, square room and collapsed on the bed with a sigh. The plastic wrap covering the bed creaked beneath him. He lay on his side, looking around the room in silence.

A desk with an internet jack was at the opposite end. On the wall across from the door a kitchenette stretched five feet. In the far left corner, in front of the bed, the wall extended forward for a side-by-side closet and a bathroom. The door was wide open and he could see into the small room. "Great… a standup shower stall."

The entrance door opened wide, startling him. Fara Phoenix stood in the doorway with a grin. "Yeah, but at least Seniors get their own bathrooms." She stepped in and shut the door behind herself then tilted her head. "I can't help but notice your expression… did I surprise you?" She looked confused.

Marcus stared at her for a moment then slid off the bed and approached her. The two embraced. "I guess better hearing can still be more powerful than telepathy. I couldn't have snuck up on _you_ unless you were listening to music or something."

"I admit," she reached a paw up and touched his nose. "I'm shocked – I thought you'd have sensed me a mile away."

"I'm emotionally drained," he returned. His eyes lowered to her furry fingertip at the end of his muzzle. A smile found its way to his maw. "Came to recharge me, huh?"

"Something like that," said the sly vixen with a playfully coy look painted on her feminine visage. "I see your dyed fur has faded but I'll admit - I really like your summer-coat. The grayish-blue tint is very becoming. You can't even see the star on your face anymore. So... what's got you worn?"

"Most of these people here are teenagers," Marcus began. He took a deep breath then sighed, mostly in content due to her proximity. "Emotional adolescents, some of whom acted excessively odd because they recognize me from televised newscasts a few months ago. All the silent judging and whispering and snickering and teenage whiney …_drama_. It takes a few days to build up mental and emotional fortitude to this crap – I was exhausted the whole first week of my freshman year."

"No wonder you didn't sense me. It sounds like you shut down… like holding your breath if you're in a spice factory or tuning out an annoying background noise when working on the flight deck."

Marcus nodded then brought his paws to his face and rubbed his eyes. "Exactly. How are you, sweetheart?"

A grin returned to Fara's muzzle, tugging at the right corner of her mouth. "You've been consistent for the last three or four weeks with the pet names. You're so much more affectionate than anyone else I've ever dated – I really appreciate that." She reached her paws down to his hips. "And I bought you something you might need for school."

"A million credits?" He offered a lopsided grin. In reply, Fara wiggled her fingertips into his waist, tickling him without warning. Marcus gasped and jerked his body away, "No, wait – stop!"

"Wrong answer – guess again, fly boy." She followed him, working her fingers against the side of his abs to keep him from being able to concentrate enough to sense the answer. "A million credits wouldn't help you in school, anyhow."

"A…" he wiggled away from her, trying to retreat to the bed, but she grasped one of his belt loops to keep him from getting away. Marcus clinched his teeth and drew in a sharp breath of air then began writhing again. "…Gravity vest for the trials!"

She chuckled and shook her head, not letting him get away. "Nope. I'm more practical than that – good flying negates the need for high-G test flying."

"I give!" he said, trying to catch another breath of air. "Tickle torture is banned on Corneria!"

"It takes _hours_ of tickling," Fara mused, continuing, "…Before your lungs would collapse from tickling. Besides, it's not torture unless you're strapped down to a table. Keep guessing, babe."

Marcus wiggled away from her finger. Once his belt loop slipped away from her reach, he moved towards the desk and sat down in the rolling chair backwards, with the backrest between them. "I don't know! There's a lot of things and I can't read you right now. I doubt it would be workout gear, because we have a gym and physical training. I can't see it being a flight simulator because we have those in the lounge… I give up!"

Fara brought her left paw around to the satchel on her right hip. "It fits in here."

"Dinner?" He grinned, knowing his answer was wrong.

Phoenix broke into soft, silvery peels of delicate laughter and pulled the flap up, approaching the desk. To her amusement, Marcus rolled away in the chair. She paused, grinned over her shoulder at him, then removed a laptop computer and placed it on the desk. She reached back into her bag, withdrew a power cord and placed it on the desk besides the notebook then a small red box with a clear front. Inside, a brand name webcam sat suspended inside the plastic packaging.

Fara turned back to him and waggled her eyebrows. "A practical gift, Marcus. It'll help _you_ through school and help _me_ stay in contact with you. Finally, I got one more thing for you… also practical, but in a different sense."

She walked back to the door, opened it and stepped into the hallway then picked a box up from the floor and carried it in. She held it so that he could see the wording on the front. She grinned in response to seeing his eyes widen.

"A television?" Marcus laughed in spite of himself. "You're the freakin' best girlfriend _ever_." He approached her and took the box from her paws, somewhat surprised by the weight. "This is awfully heavy for," he paused and glanced down at the box between them. "…For thirty-two inches."

He placed the box on the desk next to the laptop and opened the top of the box using his index claw. His eyes flitted to the lay of the tape, noting that it had been repackaged then lifted the cardboard flap. He stood on his tiptoes to peer down into the top of the box from where it sat on the desk. His eyes widened again.

Fara couldn't help but giggle, seeing his response. "I tricked you."

Marcus grew excited and quickly turned the box on its side then withdrew the flat device, which fit perfectly inside of the television's box. He carefully brought the contraption to the floor and pulled the shrink wrap away. "I… can't believe you got me… these are _expensive_, Fara!"

"…It's still practical in a sense."

"You… are wonderful." He took a cord from the back of the vertical black unit and plugged it into the wall then stood up and moved back. A light on the front of the box flickered three times then a tiny black nozzle-like device lifted from the top. The emitter opened like a blooming flower and, quite suddenly, a holographic newsfeed filled the air above the device.

"Oh my," Fara brought her paw to her lips and said, "Look at that… talk about irony."

A second later, the built in audio speaker came to life and a news reporter's voice filled the room. "...And Theodore Toad was all smiles, making jokes and pleasant conversation with the journalists outside of the courthouse today. He spoke of the future for StarFox and even left a potent message of warning for Dash Bowman… Venom, if you're listening," the voice paused, and Theodore's voice picked up without delay.

"…We're coming for you soon. You can't keep pushing Corneria around. I've flown alongside of Vivian and Marcus. They're amazing. Falco Lombardi, myself and our two friends have your name and your number, Bowman. My advice to _you_ is to lay low until the day you retire – not that you'll take it." The holographic frog lifted a wide-brimmed hat up and placed it upon his head. His orange skin glistened from the lighting from the surrounding reporters. "Because StarFox doesn't give a hill-of-beans about your new alliance with Andrew Oikonny. That's just another good reason to come for you."

The holographic image changed to the anchor at her desk again. "And there you have it. Theodore Toad leaves no doubts in the minds of Lylat… StarFox is back in business and they're here to stay."

Marcus turned to Fara and grinned then moved from the rolling chair to the bed and sat down. He patted the plastic-coated mattress besides him and she sat down besides him. "There you have it, Fara Phoenix. StarFox is back in business and here to stay."

The fennec grinned and turned to face him directly. "Have you seen the baby lately?"

"I saw him ten days ago – we've agreed on every second weekend of the month." He shrugged then added, "She's really taken to that guy – the hybrid reptile-avian."

Fara quirked a single brow at him. "You son of a gun…" She shoved Marcus over. He leaned up on his elbow and returned an incredulous grin. She cocked her head to the left and said, "He's the guy you worked with on Aquas the day we attacked Venom's forces, am I right?"

"Yes, I take it he's one of your covert operations people?"

She folded her arms. "Your telepathy tell you all that?"

Marcus shook his head and laughed. "I arranged it. He gave me this whole, 'Men do this because it's not a woman's place to worry about it. Women do that, so men can take care of them in such-and-such a sense,' attitude and I wanted him to get…" The fox paused and lifted his right paw, rotating his wrist in a cylindrical motion, looking for the right word.

"…Humbled?" Fara rolled her eyes then threw her paws into the air. "He has the most potential of anyone I've worked with – even other trained agents before I was in stasis. But he frustrates me because I would never let a man teach what I'm doing who wouldn't give female recruits a fair shake."

He sat up on the bed and blinked at his girlfriend. "I sense there's a bit of tension in the air between the two of you."

"Marcus," she put her paw on his knee and sighed. "I couldn't get him to properly defend himself against another female trainee. He wouldn't raise a paw to her. I told him he would be _dead_ if she was a Venom assassin but he still didn't move a muscle in the sparring ring. He wasn't being fair to her, because she's training to be a good agent and if he doesn't take her seriously, she won't learn."

"What happened?"

The vixen ran her fingers back through her recently-trimmed shoulder-length hair. "I stepped into the ring to try and push him into defending himself. He refused to do anything more than block a few jabs, so…" She stopped and sighed. Fara looked at the floor and shrugged. "I ordered him to explain himself and he gave me that gender-role line of crap and said neither myself nor the female recruit belonged in such a program." She cut her head towards the exit door and folded her paws in her lap. "I cold-cocked Violet's boyfriend… if she finds out, there's most likely going to be drama between you and her again."

Sensing all the details behind Fara's story, Marcus widened his eyes. "You knocked him flat out? How'd he react when he woke up?"

Phoenix crossed her eyes and laid her ears flat. She clinched her paws into fists, keeping them together on her lap. "I'll let you know. He was out since last night at quarter of midnight. Had I known he was Violet's new beau, I'd have put the fist in his gut instead. Dammit, Marcus. Your joke wasn't funny."

McCloud blinked then placed his paw on her forearm. "First of all, yes it _was_ funny. Seriously. All you did is help him out. So he's not awake yet?"

Fara shook her head and said, "I got a text message while I was shopping for you… he's awake. In fact, he's fine. The nurse practitioner is a friend of mine. She said he's polite, respectful and responsive. She also said he slept through the night like a baby on antihistamine. When he woke up, he refused to tell her if his eye was sore but she did a vision test – he checks out just fine."

"When did he wake up, exactly? I'm just curious."

She shrugged a bit and said, "Eleven in the morning. But it makes sense – I gave it some thought; he woke up on a biological schedule. It was five in the morning where he was stationed on Katina. She said he woke up and was immediately awake and alert. …Good qualities for an agent who needs to rest while in the field. There's no time to be groggy if you wake up in the midst of danger." She flipped her communicator open in her paw and glanced at the small screen then put it away. "She also said he slept with his eyes wide open until exactly eleven o'clock."

"Well, at least he treats Violet nice."

"I doubt I'll be able to break him of his habit concerning women, but because he has the most potential, I need for him to see women as equals to men in _some_ regards. …At least military women. Maybe I can change his perception so that he treats _civilians_ one way and _military_ another. …Just got to erase that damn gender line."

"Am I allowed to ask if he's getting paid better in this new program?"

Fara shook her head. "It's classified. Then again, you have no idea how much he made before now, either… so, at the very least, I _can_ tell you he's making about _six times_ more. In fact, his eyes widened when he saw his contract before signing. He'll be a good financial provider if that's what you're worried about."

"After seeing his fighting style, is he any good?" Marcus stood up from the bed and stretched then walked over to the holo-vision and turned it off so he could concentrate on his conversation with her.

"He's exceptional. So is the female recruit I put him against. She's nowhere near his caliber so I wanted her to learn… needless to say, he holds back against _all_ other opponents. The thing is, he doesn't even fight the females. It's going to get him _killed_. All it will take is a woman to come up and knock him out then plug him with holes – any recruit who refuses to defend his own life from another opponent just because of their gender… potential or not… is on a suicide mission _every time_ he goes into the field."

Marcus ran his fingers over his face and groaned. "Then I guess it's a good thing I sent him your way. If anyone can fix his idiotic attitude, _you_ can."

Fara grinned and shook her head. "I see you're _still_ amused… you're proud of yourself, aren't you?"

He nodded with a grin and re-approached her. "I sure am."

"Did you arrange this for _me_ or for _his_ benefit?"

"A little of both."

"You arse." She waited until he was close enough to the bed that she could reach him without standing up. She took his shirt in her fingers and pulled him close then slid her paws up to his collar and pulled him down into a kiss. "_This_ is why we have to keep our relationship out of the public limelight for the time being. They would pull him out of the program and call it a conflict of interest. He wouldn't be allowed back in until I was no longer the instructor. My thoughts are that I would make _him_ the next instructor if he gets his act together."

Marcus grinned against her lips. "At least his actions towards women are for _different_ reasons than someone like Panther Caruso."

"Oh, I agree with that. He's the opposite of a womanizer. Treating women differently from men is where he and Panther's similarities end. If anything, he would be highly offended at the way Caruso ogles and womanizes the female gender."

"Needless to say, I dislike Panther because that asshole allegedly dated my mother."

Fara nodded. "He did – I read about it before I even met you. Now – let's change the subject. I don't want to talk about Panther, Asper or anyone else right now."

"Then what _do_ you want to talk about?"

She gave another tug at his shirt, pulling him down onto the mattress adjacent to her. "Us." She leaned forward again and covered his lips with her own in a delicious kiss.

* * *

**The late afternoon sunlight filtered in through the kitchen window**. A gentle breeze rushed in through the screen, pushing the short curtains out until one draped over the sink handle. On the other side of the windblown, translucent, colorful fabric was a wooden window box filled with colorfully complimenting flowers. Their fragrant aroma wafted through the cabin.

In the background, the gentle susurration of rhythmic waves crashed against the cliffside far below. The charming cabin overlooked the Cornerian Sea, which sparkled like diamonds in the orange-tinted skyline. Clouds floated by in a lazy fashion, while the distant sound of crashing surf joined in harmonious chorus to songbirds and cicadas. The serenity lasted for several more moments before a sharp screech filled the sky.

At the edge of the tranquil horizon, far off in the valley, a glimmer of a metallic object raced along a dirt road. A cloud of dust grew behind the object as it raced towards the coast at a high rate of speed.

On the porch, besides his wife, Fox McCloud eased up in a wooden rocking chair. His tail flitted listlessly through a high-back tail hole designed to keep the rocker's tail tip from falling beneath the chair's bowed tracks.

"Sense anything?" he asked.

"Oh my," she said with a grin. "It's William Grey and Jackson Pepper."

Fox quirked a brow. "Bill and Jack? Damn, it's been _years_ since I've seen John Pepper's kid. Can you tell what they want from this distance?"

Krystal shook her head slowly. "I wonder how they found us. We've not even told Marcus our new Address yet."

Fox fidgeted for a moment. "…'_Marcus_'. It's still weird to me. But I'm honestly pleased that Falco helped convince his girl to change the baby's name. James Star McCloud… It makes me smile. I can't believe I'm a _grandfather_ already. I don't really _feel_ old."

"You're still fifty-four, Fox. _I'm_ the young one." She grinned then turned her attention back to the hover-car in the distance. "They're getting rather close now. Don't forget, love – you are _retired_."

Fox cracked a smile. "Yeah, yeah… I know."

Krystal placed a paw atop of his and grinned. He closed his fingertips about her cerulean-furred paw and her grin broadened into a smile. "You've been so sweet to me since we moved here. If you ever stop, I'll beat you with my staff."

"Oh, you tease," he told her in a dry tone of voice then chuckled a bit. "Don't make me return the favor, young lady."

Krystal gave his paw a playful squeeze. "Promises, promises Mister McCloud." She offered her mate a saucy wink then cut her gaze back to the approaching black sedan. "Oh bother… what an A-Typical thing for the military to drive. It's certainly not a personal vehicle."

"Which leads me to believe it's not a personal trip," Fox mused in a thoughtful tone. "Don't worry – we're retired. I promise."

She leaned over and kissed the side of his face. "You're good to me."

The sedan eased off the dirt path and into the grass then came to a stop. It lowered to the ground slowly and both doors opened. Jack Pepper and Bill Grey stepped from either side of the car wearing military uniforms. They both took a moment to tug on their dress jackets and adjust the lay of the decorations then approached the front porch. "Good morning, Fox… Krystal."

"Morning, Bill?" Fox grinned at his school-hood friend.

Grey nodded. "It is where we're coming from." He lifted his left paw and glanced at a wrist watch then nodded firmly. "Six in the morning, GCT."

"I haven't gone by General Capital Time since I moved here. What brings you guys by? No doubt it's a pleasant and personal visit, since I've retired. I mean, after all bud… My kid is old enough to take jobs so I sit on my laurels and occasionally play with _grand_kids now."

The other guy, a lean, broad shouldered hound approached the porch. "That didn't stop Peppy from running all over Lylat until he was in his late seventies."

Fox nodded, unable to deny the fact. "Very true. But he did it to keep his mind busy after his wife passed. I feel bad that you guys drove all the way out here only for me to reject your offer."

Bill frowned. "You've not even heard it yet."

"No need." McCloud crossed his ankles to accentuate the look of feeling comfortable.

"At least hear us out," said Pepper. "It's not your usual job – there won't be any explosions or gun slinging. It's just a nice, easy relaxing mission with all expenses paid."

"Please, Fox…" Bill tilted his head, "Dude, we've come all this way – just hear us out."

"I'm Fox McCloud – man of this household and I've already put my foot down but I won't deny you from talking about whatever you came to say, bud."

Grey approached the two chairs on the porch and handed a file up to Fox. McCloud grinned and dismissively passed the file to Krystal then leaned forward so that he was almost face to face with Bill. "Listen, 'General', I promised her that I'm done gallivanting all over the known and unknown universe. I won't do it for profit, I won't do it for fun, I won't even do it for a quick thrill. You might drive out of here and say, '_Oh man, Fox McCloud is whipped_!' You might even say, '_That guy is out to pasture. What a boring old coot_.' But as far as I'm concerned, I'm _happy_ sitting on my tail with my wife. I run this roost and that's my final answer."

Krystal gasped and lifted her head from the folder. "We'll do it, General! It says we'll start on the first of next month… That should give us plenty of time to get into shape. We'll see you in thirty days at the Interplanetary Spaceport, sir. Thank you for this opportunity!" She reached forward and passed the file down to Jack Pepper.

Fox blinked twice and turned to his wife with a slack jaw. "We will?"

Krystal nodded firmly and stood up from her rocking chair. "You'd better bet your tightly-toned rump we will!" She cut her head back to Bill and asked, "We can start sooner if you like."

Again, McCloud blinked at his spouse. "We _can_?"

Bill blinked in unison to Fox and incredulously mimicked his school-hood friend in shock. "You _can_?"

"The sooner the better," she replied. "I had _no_ _idea_ you needed our help doing that."

Bill nodded emphatically. "Not only will Corneria appreciate your efforts, Sauria will thank you as well. I'll be in contact with you both as soon as I have all the details on the operation. Here's my business card. Call us tomorrow morning with all of your contact information and I'll let you know how this will play out."

Pepper reached forward and shook Krystal's paw. "Thank you, Mrs. McCloud! This means the world to us!"

"It would be our pleasure, boys. We'll be in contact – until then!" She waved to the two military officers as they got back into the sedan. It lifted from the grass, turned about and headed back down the dirt path… after a moment, she sensed Fox's shock was still strong so she turned to face him with a half-canted head and cocked eyebrow. "What? They're going to send us to Sauria on an _ocean liner_ in order to act as tourists… then we're going to… Oh geeze, you'll see – you should have read the file instead of just passing it off. C'mon inside and I'll tell you all about it… but there's no way we could turn this down… it's just too important."

Fox just reached a paw back and rubbed his neck, unable to do anything but gawk at her.

* * *

**Marcus McCloud narrowed his gaze**. He couldn't see _anything_ through the canopy. The M-Class fighter growled beneath him, going from transonic to supersonic speed. The vapor cone covering the entire rear section of the plane made the rear-mounted cockpit design an annoyance. "Dammit, the Arwings never have this problem," he muttered into the radio.

A serious-toned reply came over his headset. "That's because they transcend the speed barrier so quickly, the shock-collar singularity must only last for an instant." After a second, they added, "It's particularly humid today – fly by your instruments."

"I can fly _at_ the speed of sound without having this problem," replied Marcus. He lowered his eyes to the gauges on the dash.

A female voice came over the radio patch. "That's because the Arwing's plasma engine changes the temperature of the air in a field around the body. It also has an energy field – the shields… the dew point is mute because there is no humidity inside the shield – the N-wave compression causes the condensation cloud outside of the shield, thereby causing the cloud far enough from the aircraft that it doesn't restrict forward view."

Another male voice joined into the channel. "You know, there's something really hot about intelligent women… I'm not going to lie."

"Thank you, Jack!"

McCloud took a deep breath then sighed. "I heard the M-Class is being retired soon for a fighter with a forward-design cockpit. It's supposed to be like the ones the Military is using."

The serious voice returned over the channel. "Yes, but not for another month or two. Also, the cockpit _is_ in front of the wings, but the way it's designed, the cockpit is actually located at the fulcrum of the fuselage. Its shields will keep it from experiencing atmospheric shock-collars. Regardless, I have everyone in formation at this speed to prove a point. Sometimes, you _must_ fly blind. That is when you rely on your instruments and your instincts. I'm using the M-Class' design flaw against you to make my point clear."

The female's voice returned to the channel. "Also, the older Arwings – the earliest model – had the cockpit nestled between large vertical V-shaped wings, which caused the cloud to happen in a way that still gave the pilot full visibility when flying without their shields. Everyone, I'm picking up the Red Team on the scope."

The instructor cleared his throat. "Remember, we're not engaging them until day after tomorrow. They're up here doing lessons, too. Leave them be."

Jack's voice returned to the channel. "At the very least, we should drop in speed and watch them to see what we can learn. If we watch their flying style, which could give us an edge in combat when we engage them"

The female classmate said, "Good idea, J.T., we could go back and study the footage later on."

"May we, sir?" asked McCloud.

"You're the current Wing Commander," replied the Instructor. "I'll give you leeway to make that call on your own. We'll resume the instrument-flying lesson in fifteen minutes. You're clear to carry on with the low-velocity observation patrol."

"Acknowledge," replied Marcus. "Okay guys, let's not cross the line – the no-fly-zone is only a squiggly line on the map the size of campus. We'll head out towards them then double back. We'll make two passes then return to our lesson plans. Here we go…"

_Meanwhile_…

Inside the academy command center, several officers were conversing on the progress of the seniors currently in flight. A lynx settled down besides one of the Instructors and patted his shoulder. "Who are your three pilots, Bernard?"

Lt. Colonel Bernard Thompson looked up at the woman and blinked at her. "My goodness, it's been almost my entire career since I've last seen you, Miss Lynx." He cut his gaze to the sensor board and pointed to the lead dot in a delta formation. "That's Marcus McCloud." He lowered his finger to the blip on the rear right. "On his starboard is Jack Thunder." The canine drew his finger up to the rear-port of the lead dot and said, "That's Tess Spaniel. She's the brainchild of the group."

"Funny, isn't it? Fay's daughter being so freakin' smart like that? Who would have known she'd be a prodigy."

Thompson nodded. "The only person _younger_ than her to join the academy was McCloud during his first tour. He was a freshman and going to classes, about two days before his thirteenth birthday. That's an academy record." He cast a grin at the woman. "And what gives you the right to call me by my first name, _Miyu_?"

"I see you've not forgotten _mine_, Lieutenant Colonel Bernard Lee Thompson." She reached her paw out and fluffed his headfur with a grin. His floppy ears bounced about leaving her to grin at him.

"Don't ruin the career of your best friend's daughter. She's worked hard to get where she's at – a senior in the flight academy at just seventeen years old. She has high marks and, like Mister Thunder, has a very high academic standing… they're both looking at becoming a class valedictorian."

"Fox McCloud's kid isn't a straight-A student?" Miyu raised her brows and folded her arms. After a moment she shrugged and played with the man's hair again.

"Will you stop it? You're in your fifties, Lynx. Stop acting like you're still a teenager."

Miyu blew him a kiss. "I never grew up, old man. You were a great instructor though. Those kids should be honored to have you as their teacher."

"I also trained McCloud's father, Slippy Toad and Wolf O'Donnell. You and O'Donnell had fantastic potential and yet neither of you took anything serious. So, two made use of my training… while two didn't. How should they be honored to have a teacher who has a fifty-percent success rate for student-military turnover ratio? What brings you in here, anyhow?"

"I wanted to check up on Fay's kid," she said, adding, "And I wanted to follow up on a rumor. I heard McCloud was dating someone I wanted to catch up with… I figured he would know how to contact her, so I'm waiting here until they land. Is that a crime?"

"It's a free planet," replied Bernard. "And I read that the rumors of that kid dating Fara Phoenix are _just that – _rumors! Don't go starting drama in my house, young lady."

Miyu preened. "It's nice to be called that again after so long. Damn you're old, Thompson." She gazed back at the screen. "Just the same, I wanted to catch up with Fara – we were fast friends back in the day. I read about her re-awakening. I saw a magazine article about a month or two ago. I'm still in the reserves, you know."

The older canine, in surprisingly good shape for the age of sixty-eight, turned to her and glowered. "Yes, a Lieutenant who collects a check and occasionally flies on the weekends. I'm aware." He sighed then said, "Go wait by the airfield if you want to talk to them after they land… I'm busy up here, Miss Lynx."

Miyu put her paws on her hips. "Lieutenant Lynx," she corrected. "The difference in our rank is just a formality – I've logged three times as many flight hours as you." She smirked at the way he somewhat flaunted the metal symbol on his collar. She wrinkled her nose and said, "I bet you stay up late nights just polishing it, don't you?"

Bernard cut his gaze to her and offered a pleasant smile. "No, I have Lieutenants who do that for me. You're dismissed." He turned back to the screen displaying the status of his pilots and folded his paws in his lap.

The Lynx walked out of the room and down the stairs to the doors leading to the airfield. "He always _was_ too damn serious about life," she muttered to herself. "Fox McCloud's _kid_," she continued in a low tone. "How strange is _that_?" She pushed the exit door open and stepped outside. "What is it with McCloud men and that rich fennec…" She glanced at her wrist watch then frowned. "I hate being a military messenger girl – I sure hope he knows how to contact Phoenix – you'd think a covert operations instructor would answer her personal communicator when a superior calls her. Why in the world would they send _me_ to serve her with mission orders?" She continued to argue with herself over the ambient noise of landing fighter jets from various classes.

* * *

**Zizan knelt before Dash Bowman** gracefully sweeping his right arm across his torso to honor his new leader. "I'm surprised to see you here, my liege. What brings you?"

Bowman pushed his fingertips together, palms apart, making the image of a spade between his joined hands. A dignified red cloak draped from his left shoulder brushed the back of his ankles as he walked. "There will be a modification to the engine systems of my largest order."

"The corebase, sir? The fleet is two-thirds ready, it's the corebase that will take the longest to complete. Would you like a tour?"

Dash shook his head. "I have agents on Sauria. They're preparing to steal the spell stones from the Forcepoint Temple. I would prefer to use them as a power supply for the base upon completion."

"Very well," replied the Anglar with a firm nod. "But we'll need at least one to design a containment unit for them. How many are there?"

"Four." He folded his hands behind his back, beneath the velvet robe. "For now, I want you to design a backup reactor that will be run off of the radioactive metals we've obtained from Sargasso. I know grandfather had books detailing the study of this atom-splitting power so I'll bring together a science team from Eladard to teach a group of technicians how to run such a reactor. However, I would prefer to keep this special ore for use in making a weapon. I'd rather use these stones to power the base."

"There are only _four_ stones, Emperor Bowman?"

Dash grinned a bit. "These four stones are powerful enough to keep the planet from breaking apart. Their immeasurable energy comes from an ancient technology made by the first sentient beings to populate Lylat. I wish to harness and study these stones but as it stands, all research done on them thus far has shown that their power supply is limitless. A never ending power supply will ensure that the shield generators for this base will never waver. Think of the possibilities."

"Who did you send to Sauria? Please, sir, tell me you had enough sense not to send that bungling idiot."

Dash's grin broadened. "No, Andrew is at a conference in Shrey Lek – the surface-world's capital. How many workers are under your employ at this moment?"

Zizan lifted his head, watching Dash walk by. "Seven thousand workers, a thousand mechanics and seven hundred engineers head my task force."

Bowman stopped in front of the Anglar and gestured to the man with an up-nod. "Eighty-seven hundred people isn't enough. Elevate the workforce to ten thousand strong. I'll sell small quantities of this precious radioactive ore on the black market and use the profits to strengthen Venom's economy – you have my permission to raise the pay grade of every worker. We'll offset this by changing the tax brackets on profitable businesses across the surface world of Venom. I don't want a half-assed fleet, Zizan."

"The dangerous metal is worth _that much_?" The amphibious being rose to his feet and folded his arms across his chest.

"That idiot O'Donnell had no _idea_ what he was sitting on." Dash offered a relaxed shrug of his shoulders then brought his hands back together, almost as if in prayer. "He was the single wealthiest man in Lylat and never knew it. I now own this ore – _all of it_. Give _everyone_ a thirty-five percent raise. Offer more benefits, give them long week hours but guarantee them to have weekends off. They'll be happy to feel as though the economy is no longer in dire straights. Let them know it was the kindness and wealth of Dash Bowman that brought not only food to their tables but a taste of the good life for their families."

"They'll be far more loyal to you than to your cousin, sir."

Bowman patted Zizan's shoulder. "Exactly. I'll began a propaganda campaign to the youth of this planet… we'll begin my lowering the prices on luxury goods and reminding them of all the sanctions and tariffs placed on them by the rest of Lylat. I want them to take expensive wine for granted. That way, when they feel their new-found wealth is threatened, they'll stand behind me and rise up against not only Lylat, but against Andrew. I have no qualms about purchasing their loyalty to me."

Zizan replied with a nod of understanding. He listened to Dash's short speech then said, "I wish you luck on your operation on planet Sauria. Are you _sure_ you wouldn't like a tour of your battle fleet before you depart?"

"That won't be necessary. I have a new General who will take charge of this situation. I came to introduce you to her. I demand you give her the same loyalty as you've given me, Zizan. She will be very demanding – see to it that all of her demands are met and all of her expectations are exceeded."

"_Her_, my liege?"

Dash lifted a finger, gesturing for a moment of pause then walked out of the office. He spoke in a hushed tone to a hooded figure in the doorway. "Remember," he told her, "I need you back in your regeneration chamber each night. This is very different than the reptile army _you_ commanded, but they'll be every bit as loyal or I'll deal a swift punishment. Do _not_ carry out your own admonishment without first contacting me on the matter." They whispered to one another for a moment more than he opened the door for her. He turned back to Zizan and, in a commanding tone, said, "This is my _business partner_. Remember to carry out her every order as if _I_ was giving them to you."

"Yes, my liege!" Zizan lowered to one knee and brought his arm across his chest again. Without a further word, Bowman left the office and closed the door behind himself.

The hooded woman gestured with her paw for the Anglar to stand. "I wish a tour of this battle fleet, as well as the construction grounds, ship yards and dry dock hangers."

"As the lady wishes." He stood once more, towering over her petite form. "By what name shall I call her majesty?"

"I could easily grow quite fond of _Empress_. Mm, I also like _Mistress_. However, if a name and a face would make things easier on you…" She lifted a long-sleeved arm. The cuff slid back to her forearm, revealing a dainty blue-furred paw. She brought her silver-lacquered nails together around the stitching of the hood then drew it back from her face.

The elegant and aristocratic features of a well-groomed vixen were offset by the intensity of her intelligent emerald eyes. "You may call me _Kursed_." A lock of her sapphire bangs slipped from her forehead, partially obscuring her right eye. A charming, regal smile joined the coquettish expression on her visage. "So long as you follow my orders, my cold-blooded servant, I assure we will get along just fine."

"Thank you for your confidence in me, Empress Kursed." He swept his arm out then panned it to the left. "The door behind me leads to an elevator. That will take us down to the factory beneath the bedrock. I'll give you this tour _personally_."

She approached him and stood before him in silence. She lifted her head then lowered it as if inspecting him physical appearance but, instead, took the time to probe his mind. She scanned his inner thoughts and deepest secrets to learn of his reasons for loyalty to the original Anglar emperor and, now, to Bowman. A smile tugged at the corner of her muzzle, learning of what would make him fiercely loyal to her in the future and patted his cheek. "I have a feeling you and I will get along just fine – I am what you might call a 'good judge of character' and… I do believe we'll be working side by side more often." She sensed his next thought as to wanting to know 'when' and, before he could ask, said, "…All in due time."

She looked him over once more and sighed in content. All it would take to eventually obtain his complete loyalty to _her_ was to bestow him power. If she could have Zizan work directly for her, she would gain the full support of the entire Anglar population. Next, she would make Venom belong to her, along with the SharpClaw of Sauria… then it would be like before in _her_ Lylat. For now, she only had to bide her time and remain Bowman and Oikonny's ally.

Zizan moved to the door and opened it for her. She stepped through and they walked down the hall to the elevator. "I see you have little respect for Andrew Oikonny."

"Yes, mistress – he's failed the Anglar forces when he was under their employ in the past. He's failed Venom in an attempt to lead them to glory against Corneria. He even failed as a pawn when simply piloting a fighter in the first Lylat War. He's useless."

She drew her hood back over her head and smiled inwardly. This was going to be easier than she initially thought. "Very true – a true leader has to be strong and successful. I'm glad we're in agreement over him. Now, enough of that – onto the tour. Show me this corebase _first_."

"As you wish, Empress."

Kursed turned to face him in the elevator. The hood covering most of her face still allowed for a hint of pearly white fangs to flash in the recessed lighting. Her Cheshire smile haunted him deep down in his chest. She brought her paws together behind her back. "You'll do, Zizan. You'll do nicely."

* * *

**A/N:** HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! _I finished the story! Yeah, the first 18 reviews came quick… Everyone has asked for a sequel so far… so yeah, it's going to happen. So, I took the opportunity to make the epilogue hint at all the stuff that's going to happen in the sequel. We already see that Kursed has her own agenda and an ulterior motive. We see that the Cornerian Intelligence noticed Venom agents milling around Sauria… We also see that Krystal wants to take Fox on vacation to make sure the planet where they met won't turn into a pile of rocks like in the other universe…_

_Marcus is learning, Bliss is chilling, Crimson is panting and Kursed is plotting. To recap, Falco is taking it slow with Katt, after six years apart, while Bill is thrust head-long out of retirement and back into the military. Now HERE is something interesting… Lucy's bio in SF: Command says, "Peppy's only daughter…" That says to me that he also has a few sons, but she's the only daughter… Will Vivian's uncles make an appearance in the sequel? I've not decided yet but I'll give it some thought._

_I've had so much fun writing this. I really enjoyed building Marcus. It's difficult to write something about someone who comes from my head, only to find out that Nintendo has a picture of him in the latest StarFox game for the DS. Now he's burrying his past as best as he can in order to make him more canon and, at the same time, keep him the way I've built him, without turning him into something new or different all together. YOU GUYS are the reason I've written everything. For 18 immediate reviews to say something nice about chapter 30 in just a few short days... I'm just wowed. I think the person I need to thank the MOST, though... is Distructor. You know you've probably read PHOENIX FROM THE ASHES... without him, I'd have been in a lot of trouble. FOR ALL OF MY LATEST STORIES, at that. _

Destructor, thank you man. You're MY hero!

_Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, children of all ages… space cadets, I REALLY APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU._

_THIS STORY IS FINISHED! After a million years, too!_

_YAY! _

_THANK YOU ALL for reading! I appreciate you taking your time to view my story, and… for those of you who were nice enough to leave reviews and personal feedback on how this story made you feel… you guys humble me! You have my gratitude!_

_THANK YOU!_

-Kit Karamak

May First, 2008


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